Two-step rach for new radio (nr) with unlicensed operation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described for a 2-Step Random Access Channel (RACH) for New Radio (NR) with unlicensed operation. The systems and methods include at least, generating, by a user equipment (UE), a MsgA of a random access channel (RACH) procedure associated with the NR network, the MsgA having a physical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission during the RACH procedure, and transmitting, by the UE, the MsgA to a base station (gNB) over unlicensed spectrum of the NR network during the RACH procedure.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/824,891, filed Mar. 27, 2019, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wirelesscommunications.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are directed to a method of operating a user equipment (UE)in a 2-Step Random Access Channel (RACH) for New Radio (NR) withunlicensed operation (e.g, using unlicensed spectrum). The method caninclude at least generating, by the UE, a MsgA (e.g, message A) of arandom access channel (RACH) procedure associated with the NR network,the MsgA having a physical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and anassociated physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion fortransmission during the RACH procedure, and transmitting, by the UE, theMsgA to a base station (gNB) over unlicensed spectrum of the NR networkduring the RACH procedure.

The method can further include the PRACH occasion and the associatedPUSCH occasion being configured to cause the MsgA to satisfy an occupiedchannel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of the unlicensed spectrum duringthe RACH procedure.

The method can further include generating based on configuring, by theUE, the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion separately, andallocating, by the UE, a reserved state in a time domain resourceallocation to indicate that the associated PUSCH occasion follows rightafter a preamble of the PRACH occasion.

The method can further include generating based on inserting, by the UE,an extension of a cyclic prefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill agap between the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.

The method can further include inserting, by the UE, a copy of apreamble of the PRACH occasion to fill a gap between the PRACH occasionand the associated PUSCH occasion.

The method can further include defining, by the UE, a bitmap, whereineach bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether a corresponding PRACHoccasion is enabled or disabled during the RACH procedure.

The method can further include configuring, by the UE, the PUSCHoccasion based on a frequency offset, wherein the frequency offset isbased on an interlace index or a physical resource block (PRB) index.

Embodiments can be directed to a non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a userequipment (UE), cause the UE to perform operations including at leastgenerating a MsgA of a random access channel (RACH) procedure associatedwith the NR network, the MsgA having a physical random access channel(PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) occasion for transmission during the RACH procedure, andtransmitting the MsgA to a base station (gNB) over unlicensed spectrumof the NR network during the RACH procedure.

The operations can further include the PRACH occasion and the associatedPUSCH occasion are configured to cause the MsgA to satisfy an occupiedchannel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of the unlicensed spectrum duringthe RACH procedure.

The operations can further include configuring the PRACH occasion andthe associated PUSCH occasion separately, and allocating a reservedstate in a time domain resource allocation to indicate that theassociated PUSCH occasion follows right after a preamble of the PRACHoccasion.

The operations can further include inserting an extension of a cyclicprefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gap between the PRACHoccasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.

The operations can further include inserting a copy of a preamble of thePRACH occasion to fill a gap between the PRACH occasion and theassociated PUSCH occasion.

The operations can further include defining a bitmap, wherein each bitin the bitmap is used to indicate whether a corresponding PRACH occasionis enabled or disabled during the RACH procedure.

The operations can further include configuring the PUSCH occasion basedon a frequency offset, wherein the frequency offset is based on aninterlace index or a physical resource block (PRB) index.

Embodiments are directed to a user equipment (UE) including at least aprocessor circuitry configured to generate a MsgA for a random accesschannel (RACH) procedure, the MsgA having a physical random accesschannel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission during the RACH procedure. TheUE can further include a radio front end circuitry, coupled to theprocessor circuitry, configured to transmit the MsgA over unlicensedspectrum of the NR network during the RACH procedure, wherein the PRACHoccasion and the associated PUSCH occasion are configured to cause theMsgA to satisfy an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of theunlicensed spectrum during the RACH procedure.

The processor circuitry can be further configured to configure the PRACHoccasion and the associated PUSCH occasion separately, and allocate areserved state in a time domain resource allocation to indicate that theassociated PUSCH occasion follows right after a preamble of the PRACHoccasion.

The processor circuitry can be further configured to insert an extensionof a cyclic prefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gap betweenthe PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.

The processor circuitry can be further configured to insert a copy of apreamble of the PRACH occasion to fill a gap between the PRACH occasionand the associated PUSCH occasion.

The processor circuitry can be further configured to define a bitmap,wherein each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether acorresponding PRACH occasion is enabled or disabled during the RACHprocedure.

The processor circuitry can be further configured to configure the PUSCHoccasion based on a frequency offset, wherein the frequency offset isbased on an interlace index or a physical resource block (PRB) index.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a 2-step RACH procedure, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates different options of PRACH enhancements for NR-U, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates one example of consecutive transmissions of PRACH andMsgA PUSCH, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates one example of disabling subset of PRACH occasions,in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 depicts an architecture of a system of a network in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts an architecture of a system including a first corenetwork in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts an architecture of a system including a second corenetwork in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts an example of infrastructure equipment in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts example components of a computer platform in accordancewith various embodiments

FIG. 10 depicts example components of baseband circuitry and radiofrequency circuitry in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of various protocol functions that may beused for various protocol stacks in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates components of a core network in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, of a system to support network functionsvirtualization (NFV).

FIG. 14 depicts a block diagram illustrating components, according tosome example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

FIG. 15 depicts an example procedure for practicing the variousembodiments discussed herein.

The features and advantages of the embodiments will become more apparentfrom the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunctionwith the drawings, in which like reference characters identifycorresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like referencenumbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/orstructurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element firstappears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the correspondingreference number.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Discussion of Embodiments

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identifythe same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposesof explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth suchas particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects ofvarious embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the variousaspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examplesthat depart from these specific details. In certain instances,descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted soas not to obscure the description of the various embodiments withunnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase“A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

Mobile communication has evolved significantly from early voice systemsto today's highly sophisticated integrated communication platform. Thenext generation wireless communication system, 5G, or new radio (NR)will provide access to information and sharing of data anywhere, anytimeby various users and applications. NR is expected to be a unifiednetwork/system that targets to meet vastly different and sometimeconflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diversemulti-dimensional requirements are driven by different services andapplications. In general, NR will evolve based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced withadditional potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs) to enrichpeople's lives with better, simple, and seamless wireless connectivitysolutions. NR will enable everything connected by wireless and deliverfast, rich contents and services.

In NR, a 4-step random access (RACH) procedure was defined. To reduceaccess latency, the RACH procedure may be simplified to allow fastaccess and low latency uplink transmission. In particular, the 4 stepRACH procedure may be reduced to 2 steps, where a user equipment (UE)may combine Msg. 1 and Msg. 3 in the conventional RACH procedure for lowlatency PRACH transmission. FIG. 1 illustrates a 2-step RACH procedure100. More specifically, in a first step 102, MsgA (e.g. message A) iscomposed of PRACH preamble and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)carrying payload which are multiplexed in a time division multiplexing(TDM) manner. For instance, the payload may include the contents of Msg.3 of the 4-step RACH. In the second step 104, MsgB may include contentsof Msg. 2 and Msg. 4 of 4-step RACH.

Note that the 2-step RACH procedure 100 can be applied for NR withunlicensed operation (e.g., using unlicensed spectrum). One of thebenefits of the 2-step RACH procedure 100 is due to less listen beforetalk (LBT) impact with the reduced number of messages, which can help toreduce the latency and increase the chance of successful random access.

To meet Occupied Channel Bandwidth (OCB) requirement, resourceallocation and transmission of physical random access channel (PRACH)and PUSCH needs to be re-designed for NR system with unlicensedoperation. More specifically, non-interlaced or interlaced PRACHtransmission and interlaced PUSCH transmission can be supported for NRwith unlicensed operation. In case when interlaced based structure isapplied for the transmission of PRACH and PUSCH for NR with unlicensedoperation, certain mechanism on the resource allocation andconfiguration for MsgA PUSCH needs to be enhanced.

Herein, detailed design is provided on the application of 2-step RACHfor NR with unlicensed operation. In particular, we propose: (1) Timedomain resource allocation of MsgA for 2-step RACH for NR withunlicensed operation and (2) Frequency domain resource allocation ofMsgA for 2-step RACH for NR with unlicensed operation.

In this disclosure, we disclose detailed configuration of MsgA PUSCH in2-step RACH procedure 100.

For NR with unlicensed operation, a few options were identified for theenhancement of NR Rel-15 PRACH formats to meet minimum occupied channelbandwidth requirement by regulation. FIG. 2 illustrates differentoptions of PRACH enhancements. More specifically, the following optionsare considered:

Option 1: Uniform Physical Resource Block (PRB)-Level Interlace Mapping.

In this option, as illustrated by 202, a PRACH sequence for a particularPRACH occasion is mapped to all of the PRBs of one or more of theinterlaces in the PRB-based block interlace structure.

Option 2: Non-Uniform PRB-Level Interlace Mapping

In this approach, as illustrated by 204, a PRACH sequence for aparticular PRACH occasion is mapped to some or all of the PRBs of one ormore of the interlaces in the same PRB-based block interlace structureused for PUSCH/PUCCH.

Option 3: Uniform RE-Level Interlace Mapping

In this approach, a PRACH sequence for a particular PRACH occasionconsists of a “comb-like” mapping in the frequency domain with equalspacing between all used REs.

Option 4: Non-Interlaced Mapping

In this approach, as illustrated by 206, a PRACH sequence for aparticular PRACH occasion is mapped to a number of contiguous PRBs, sameor similar to NR Rel-15. To fulfill the minimum Occupied ChannelBandwidth (OCB) requirement, the PRACH sequence is mapped to a set ofcontiguous PRBs, and the PRACH sequence mapping is repeated across thefrequency domain.

For PUSCH transmission in NR with unlicensed operation, a PRB-basedblock-interlace design has been identified as beneficial at least for 15and 30 kHz Subcarrier Spacing (SCS), and potentially for 60 kHz SCS.

Time Domain Resource Allocation of MsgA for 2-Step RACH for NR withUnlicensed Operation

For time domain resource allocation of MsgA for 2-step RACH for NR withunlicensed operation, to reduce the number of listen before talk (LBT)attempts for 2-step RACH, it is expected that the gap between PRACH andassociated MsgA PUSCH is zero or small (for example, less than 16 μs).In this case, UE may only need to perform one LBT for the transmissionof MsgA in the first step of 2-step RACH procedure.

Embodiments of time domain resource allocation of MsgA for 2-step RACHfor NR with unlicensed operation are provided as follows:

In one embodiment of the disclosure, if PUSCH occasions are separatelyconfigured from PRACH occasion, one of the reserved state in the timedomain resource allocation may be used to indicate that MsgA PUSCHoccasion follows right after associated PRACH preamble. For instance,all zero state or all one state may indicate the consecutivetransmission of PRACH and MsgA PUSCH in 2-step RACH.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, if PUSCH occasion is configuredor specified to be aligned with symbol or slot boundary, it is possiblethat there is still a gap between PRACH occasion and PUSCH occasion. Toaddress this issue, extension of cyclic prefix (CP) of MsgA PUSCH may beapplied to fill in the gap between PRACH and MsgA PUSCH occasion.

FIG. 3 illustrates one example of consecutive transmissions of PRACH andMsgA PUSCH. In the example, the gap is replaced by applying CP extensionof MsgA PUSCH transmission, as shown in 302.

In another option, the gap may be replaced by the copy of PRACHpreamble, e.g., first part or last part of PRACH preamble.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, for PRACH formats with shortsequence, multiple PRACH occasions can be defined within a slot. Forinstance, for PRACH format A1, 6 time domain PRACH occasions can beconfigured in a slot.

If consecutive PRACH and MsgA PUSCH transmissions are defined for 2-stepRACH, and it is expected that some of the time domain PRACH occasionsmay be blocked due to the transmission of MsgA PUSCH, it may be moredesirable to disable one or more time domain PRACH occasions in a slot.

In one option, a bitmap may be defined, wherein each bit in the bitmapmay be used to indicate whether the corresponding PRACH occasion isenabled or disabled for 2-step RACH. In particular, bit “0” may be usedto indicate that PRACH occasion is disabled while bit “1” is used toindicate that PRACH occasion is enabled. Note that the bitmap may beconfigured by NR minimum system information (MSI), NR remaining minimumsystem information (RMSI), NR other system information (OSI) or UEspecific radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

FIG. 4 illustrates one example of disabling subset of PRACH occasions.In the example, a bitmap may indicate that PRACH occasion #1 isdisabled, as shown in 402. UE can use PRACH occasion #0 and #2 for2-step RACH.

In the other option, if multiple time domain PRACH occasions areconfigured in a slot, only the first PRACH occasion is used for thePRACH transmissions and the remaining time domain resources can be usedfor corresponding Msg A PUSCH transmission. There can be one bitindication in the PRACH configuration whether to use only the firstPRACH occasion or all PRACH occasions. Note that the indication bit maybe configured by NR minimum system information (MSI), NR remainingminimum system information (RMSI), NR other system information (OSI) orUE specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, for PRACH formats with longsequence, from UE perspective, the gap between the actually transmittedPRACH and PUSCH may be larger than PRACH formats with short sequence.The following options may be applied for time domain resource allocationof PUSCH:

Option 1: PRACH with long sequences are not allowed for 2-step RACH atleast for unlicensed band.

Option 2: UE should apply different timing advance to PRACH and PUSCH tomake sure that the gap between PRACH and PUSCH is smaller than thatrequiring additional LBT for PUSCH.

Frequency Domain Resource Allocation of MsgA for Two-Step RACH for NRwith Unlicensed Operation

As mentioned above, interlaced structure is employed for PUSCHtransmission for NR with unlicensed operation. Hence, enhancement isneeded for the frequency domain resource allocation of MsgA PUSCHoccasion for NR with unlicensed operation.

Embodiments of frequency domain resource allocation of MsgA PUSCHoccasion for 2-step RACH for NR with unlicensed operation are providedas follows:

In one embodiment of the disclosure, for the configuration of MsgA PUSCHoccasion, interlaced structure is employed for NR with unlicensedoperation. In particular, one or more interlaces are allocated for MsgAPUSCH occasion for NR with unlicensed operation. Note that in case whenDiscrete Fourier Transform-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(DFT-s-OFDM) waveform is applied for the transmission of MsgA PUSCH, thenumber of PRBs allocated for MsgA PUSCH needs to be factorable into2^(i)·3^(j)·5^(k), where i, j, k are non-negative integers.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, for the configuration of MsgAPUSCH occasion, frequency offset in terms of interlace index or physicalresource block (PRB) index in relative to associated PRACH occasion maybe configured for NR with unlicensed operation.

Note that the configuration of interlace index may be more appropriatefor the non-uniform interlaced structure for PRACH, where interlacedstructure is aligned between PRACH and PUSCH in NR with unlicensedoperation. However, since some PRBs will be used for PRACH non-uniforminterlace for some interlaces used for PUSCH, those PRBs will not beused for PUSCH even though they are in the same interlace. PRBpuncturing or rate matching around unused PRB can be used for PUSCH inthis case. Note that the configuration of interlace index may beapplicable for the uniform interlaced structure for PRACH.

Further, frequency offset, e.g., PRB index or interlace index may bedetermined in accordance with the numerology for the transmission ofMsgA PUSCH or PRACH preamble. For instance, it can be determined basedon the minimum subcarrier spacing of PRACH and associated MsgA PUSCHoccasion.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, when OCB requirement is notmandated by regulation for temporal transmission within a channeloccupied time (COT), MsgA PRACH transmission may be based on localizedfrequency mapping similar to NR-PRACH, whereas the following MsgA PUSCHtransmission may be based on interlace based structure that meets OCBrequirement. And it is also possible that both MsgA PRACH and MsgA PUSCHtransmissions can be based on localized frequency mapping when OCBrequirement is not mandated by regulation for temporal transmissionwithin a COT. Alternatively, MsgA PRACH transmission may be distributedtransmission to meet OCB requirement (based on either interlaced (PRBbased or tone based) or non-interlaced frequency domain structure),while the subsequent MsgA PUSCH transmission may be based on contiguousfrequency allocation similar to NR-PUSCH.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, multiple frequency domainresources may be configured for MsgA transmission on multiple configuredbandwidth parts and UE may choose one of the configured bandwidth partsas initial active bandwidth part based on the LBT outcome and transmitMsgA on the corresponding frequency domain resource. Here, the frequencydomain resource configuration can be aligned with LBT subband infrequency domain, e.g., 20 MHz.

Scrambling Operation of MsgA PUSCH

For NR with unlicensed operation, depending on the outcome of LBT, UEmay need to immediately transmit the PRACH and associated MsgA PUSCH. IfRandom Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) is includedfor the initialization of scrambling sequence of MsgA PUSCHtransmission, UE may not have sufficient processing time for MsgA PUSCHtransmission.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the initialization of scramblingsequence generator of MsgA PUSCH in 2-step RACH may include associatedPRACH occasion index or PRACH preamble index of associated PRACHoccasion or a combination thereof.

As a further extension, it may include only frequency domain index ofassociated PRACH occasion or PRACH preamble index of associated PRACHoccasion or a combination thereof.

In one example, the scrambling sequence generator shall be initializedwith equation (1) below:

c _(init)=(I _(RO)·2⁵ +I _(preamble))·2¹⁵ +n _(ID)   (1)

In equation (1), n_(ID)={0,1, . . . , 1023} equals the higher-layerparameter dataScramblingIdentityPUSCH if configured and the RNTI equalsthe C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI or CS-RNTI, and the transmission is not scheduledusing DCI format 0_0 in a common search space, n_(ID)=n_(ID) ^(cell)otherwise; I_(RO) is the associated PRACH occasion index, or frequencydomain index of associated PRACH occasion; I_(preamble)={0, 1, . . . ,63} is the PRACH preamble index of associated PRACH occasion.

The pseudo-random sequence of Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) maybe initialized based on the higher layer configured ID or cell ID,associated PRACH occasion index or PRACH preamble index of associatedPRACH occasion or a combination thereof.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, given that Next GenerationNodeB (gNB) may not be aware of the triggers from UE side, it may bemore desirable to specify n_(ID) as n_(ID)=n_(ID) ^(cell) for two-stepRACH operation. Further, it may also depend on whether it is forcontention based or contention free 2-step RACH.

For instance, for contention free 2-step RACH, n_(ID) equals thehigher-layer parameter dataScramblingIdentityPUSCH if configured.Further, in this case, UE may use C-RNTI for the corresponding MsgAPUSCH transmission. In this case, as shown by equation (2) below:

c _(init) =n _(RNTI)·2¹⁵ +n _(ID)   (2)

In equation (2), n_(RNTI) equals C-RNTI.

In another example, for contention based 2-step RACH transmission,equation (3), shown below, can be used:

c _(init)=(I _(RO)·2¹⁵ +I _(preamble))·2¹⁵ +n _(ID)   (3)

In equation (3), n_(ID)=n_(ID) ^(cell).

The pseudo-random sequence of Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) maybe initialized based on the higher layer configured ID or cell ID, and ahigher layer configured scramble ID or a scramble ID associated with thePRACH occasion.

Systems and Implementations

FIG. 5 illustrates an example architecture of a system 500 of a network,in accordance with various embodiments. The following description isprovided for an example system 500 that operates in conjunction with theLTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPPtechnical specifications. However, the example embodiments are notlimited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to othernetworks that benefit from the principles described herein, such asfuture 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

As shown by FIG. 5, the system 500 includes UE 501 a and UE 501 b(collectively referred to as “UEs 501” or “UE 501”). In this example,UEs 501 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreenmobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks),but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such asconsumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, featurephones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptopcomputers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE)devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices,onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobiledata terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS),electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine controlmodules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules,engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, MTCdevices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 501 may be IoT UEs, which maycomprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applicationsutilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologiessuch as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device viaa PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks.The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange ofdata. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which mayinclude uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within theInternet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs mayexecute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, statusupdates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 501 may be configured to connect, for example, communicativelycouple, with an or RAN 510. In embodiments, the RAN 510 may be an NG RANor a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. Asused herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 510 thatoperates in an NR or 5G system 500, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the likemay refer to a RAN 510 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 500. The UEs501 utilize connections (or channels) 503 and 504, respectively, each ofwhich comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussedin further detail below).

In this example, the connections 503 and 504 are illustrated as an airinterface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent withcellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMAnetwork protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the othercommunications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 501may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 505. TheProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface505 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but notlimited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

The UE 501 b is shown to be configured to access an AP 506 (alsoreferred to as “WLAN node 506,” “WLAN 506,” “WLAN Termination 506,” “WT506” or the like) via connection 507. The connection 507 can comprise alocal wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 506 would comprise a wireless fidelity(Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP 506 is shown to be connected tothe Internet without connecting to the core network of the wirelesssystem (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, theUE 501 b, RAN 510, and AP 506 may be configured to utilize LWA operationand/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 501 b in RRCCONNECTED being configured by a RAN node 511 a-b to utilize radioresources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 501 b usingWLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 507) via IPsec protocol tunnelingto authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over theconnection 507. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entiretyof original IP packets and adding a new packet header, therebyprotecting the original header of the IP packets.

The RAN 510 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 511 a and 511b (collectively referred to as “RAN nodes 511” or “RAN node 511”) thatenable the connections 503 and 504. As used herein, the terms “accessnode,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that providesthe radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity betweena network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred toas BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth,and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) orsatellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., acell). As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to aRAN node 511 that operates in an NR or 5G system 500 (for example, agNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node511 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 500 (e.g., an eNB). Accordingto various embodiments, the RAN nodes 511 may be implemented as one ormore of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station,and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocellsor other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller usercapacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes 511 may beimplemented as one or more software entities running on server computersas part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/ora virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN orvBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split whereinRRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocolentities are operated by individual RAN nodes 511; a MAC/PHY splitwherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUPand the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 511; or a “lowerPHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of thePHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHYlayer are operated by individual RAN nodes 511. This virtualizedframework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes 511 toperform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, anindividual RAN node 511 may represent individual gNB-DUs that areconnected to a gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (not shown by FIG.5). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remoteradio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., FIG. 8), and the gNB-CU may be operatedby a server that is located in the RAN 510 (not shown) or by a serverpool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally oralternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be next generationeNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane andcontrol plane protocol terminations toward the UEs 501, and areconnected to a 5GC (e.g., CN 720 of FIG. 7) via an NG interface(discussed infra).

In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be or act as RSUs.The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportationinfrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may beimplemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relativelystationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referredto as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may bereferred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB maybe referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSUis a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located ona roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 501(vUEs 501). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry tostore intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well asapplications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular andpedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct ShortRange Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latencycommunications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance,traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSUmay operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned lowlatency communications, as well as other cellular communicationsservices. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fihotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or morecellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Thecomputing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry ofthe RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoorinstallation, and may include a network interface controller to providea wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controllerand/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 511 can terminate the air interface protocol andcan be the first point of contact for the UEs 501. In some embodiments,any of the RAN nodes 511 can fulfill various logical functions for theRAN 510 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC)functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamicradio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobilitymanagement.

In embodiments, the UEs 501 can be configured to communicate using OFDMcommunication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 511over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with variouscommunication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelinkcommunications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited inthis respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonalsubcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 511 to the UEs 501, while uplinktransmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be atime-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resourcegrid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Sucha time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDMsystems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Eachcolumn and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symboland one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource gridin the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. Thesmallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resourceelement. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, whichdescribe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements.Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in thefrequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resourcesthat currently can be allocated. There are several different physicaldownlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, the UEs 501 and the RAN nodes 511communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over alicensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/or the“licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to asthe “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensedspectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range ofapproximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensedspectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs 501 and the RAN nodes 511may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In theseimplementations, the UEs 501 and the RAN nodes 511 may perform one ormore known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operationsin order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensedspectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting inthe unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may beperformed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs 501 RAN nodes511, etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency)and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specificchannel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensingoperation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine thepresence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determineif a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allowscellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in theunlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensingRF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time andcomparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based onIEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel accessmechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobilestation (MS) such as UE 501, AP 506, or the like) intends to transmit,the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, abackoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where morethan one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the sametime. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomlywithin the CWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence ofcollision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds.The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA ofWLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or ULtransmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions,respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable inlength between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximumvalues for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAAtransmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWSand a MCOT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based ongovernmental regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advancedsystems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC mayhave a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of fiveCCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can bedifferent for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lowerthan the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCscan have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, thenumber of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the samefor DL and UL.

CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs.The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCson different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. Aprimary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, andmay handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells arereferred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC forboth UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, whilechanging the PCC may require the UE 501 to undergo a handover. In LAA,eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensedspectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assistedby a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configuredwith more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on theconfigured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positionswithin a same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 501.The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resourceallocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It mayalso inform the UEs 501 about the transport format, resource allocation,and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically,downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resourceblocks to the UE 501 b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RANnodes 511 based on channel quality information fed back from any of theUEs 501. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on thePDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 501.

The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before beingmapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may firstbe organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using asub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmittedusing one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to ninesets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four QuadraturePhase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCHcan be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of theDCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCHformats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregationlevel, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that usesPDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may betransmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE maycorrespond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as anEREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 511 may be configured to communicate with one another viainterface 512. In embodiments where the system 500 is an LTE system(e.g., when CN 520 is an EPC 620 as in FIG. 6), the interface 512 may bean X2 interface 512. The X2 interface may be defined between two or moreRAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC520, and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC 520. In someimplementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface(X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provideflow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2interface, and may be used to communicate information about the deliveryof user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specificsequence number information for user data transferred from a MeNB to anSeNB; information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs toa UE 501 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that werenot delivered to a UE 501; information about a current minimum desiredbuffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and thelike. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality,including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user planetransport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well asinter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 500 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN520 is an 5GC 720 as in FIG. 7), the interface 512 may be an Xninterface 512. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes511 (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 520,between a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 520 and an eNB,and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 520. In some implementations,the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xncontrol plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteeddelivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flowcontrol functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and errorhandling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface;mobility support for UE 501 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED)including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected modebetween one or more RAN nodes 511. The mobility support may includecontext transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 511 to new(target) serving RAN node 511; and control of user plane tunnels betweenold (source) serving RAN node 511 to new (target) serving RAN node 511.A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer builton Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of aUDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stackmay include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as XnApplication Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that isbuilt on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may providethe guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transportIP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signalingPDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-Cprotocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or controlplane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The RAN 510 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network—inthis embodiment, core network (CN) 520. The CN 520 may comprise aplurality of network elements 522, which are configured to offer variousdata and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g.,users of UEs 501) who are connected to the CN 520 via the RAN 510. Thecomponents of the CN 520 may be implemented in one physical node orseparate physical nodes including components to read and executeinstructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g.,a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments,NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-describednetwork node functions via executable instructions stored in one or morecomputer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). Alogical instantiation of the CN 520 may be referred to as a networkslice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 520 may bereferred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures andinfrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions,alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resourcescomprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storagehardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used toexecute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

Generally, the application server 530 may be an element offeringapplications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g.,UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 530can also be configured to support one or more communication services(e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, socialnetworking services, etc.) for the UEs 501 via the EPC 520.

In embodiments, the CN 520 may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC 520” or thelike), and the RAN 510 may be connected with the CN 520 via an NGinterface 513. In embodiments, the NG interface 513 may be split intotwo parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 514, which carries trafficdata between the RAN nodes 511 and a UPF, and the S1 control plane(NG-C) interface 515, which is a signaling interface between the RANnodes 511 and AMFs. Embodiments where the CN 520 is a 5GC 520 arediscussed in more detail with regard to FIG. 7.

In embodiments, the CN 520 may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC 520” orthe like), while in other embodiments, the CN 520 may be an EPC). WhereCN 520 is an EPC (referred to as “EPC 520” or the like), the RAN 510 maybe connected with the CN 520 via an S1 interface 513. In embodiments,the S1 interface 513 may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane(S1-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes511 and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface 515, which is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 511 and MMEs.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system 600 including afirst CN 620, in accordance with various embodiments. In this example,system 600 may implement the LTE standard wherein the CN 620 is an EPC620 that corresponds with CN 520 of FIG. 5. Additionally, the UE 601 maybe the same or similar as the UEs 501 of FIG. 5, and the E-UTRAN 610 maybe a RAN that is the same or similar to the RAN 510 of FIG. 5, and whichmay include RAN nodes 511 discussed previously. The CN 620 may compriseMMEs 621, an S-GW 622, a P-GW 623, a HSS 624, and a SGSN 625.

The MMEs 621 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacySGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the currentlocation of a UE 601. The MMEs 621 may perform various MM procedures tomanage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and trackingarea list management. MM (also referred to as “EPS MM” or “EMM” inE-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, datastorage, etc. that are used to maintain knowledge about a presentlocation of the UE 601, provide user identity confidentiality, and/orperform other like services to users/subscribers. Each UE 601 and theMME 621 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may beestablished in the UE 601 and the MME 621 when an attach procedure issuccessfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure ordatabase object that stores MM-related information of the UE 601. TheMMEs 621 may be coupled with the HSS 624 via an S6a reference point,coupled with the SGSN 625 via an S3 reference point, and coupled withthe S-GW 622 via an S11 reference point.

The SGSN 625 may be a node that serves the UE 601 by tracking thelocation of an individual UE 601 and performing security functions. Inaddition, the SGSN 625 may perform Inter-EPC node signaling for mobilitybetween 2G/3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selectionas specified by the MMEs 621; handling of UE 601 time zone functions asspecified by the MMEs 621; and MME selection for handovers to E-UTRAN3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MMEs 621 and theSGSN 625 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPPaccess network mobility in idle and/or active states.

The HSS 624 may comprise a database for network users, includingsubscription-related information to support the network entities'handling of communication sessions. The EPC 620 may comprise one orseveral HSSs 624, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on thecapacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. Forexample, the HSS 624 can provide support for routing/roaming,authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, locationdependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 624 and theMMEs 621 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data forauthenticating/authorizing user access to the EPC 620 between HSS 624and the MMEs 621.

The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 513 (“S1-U” in FIG. 6)toward the RAN 610, and routes data packets between the RAN 610 and theEPC 620. In addition, the S-GW 622 may be a local mobility anchor pointfor inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor forinter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawfulintercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The S11 referencepoint between the S-GW 622 and the MMES 621 may provide a control planebetween the MMES 621 and the S-GW 622. The S-GW 622 may be coupled withthe P-GW 623 via an S5 reference point.

The P-GW 623 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN 630. The P-GW623 may route data packets between the EPC 620 and external networkssuch as a network including the application server 530 (alternativelyreferred to as an “AF”) via an IP interface 525 (see e.g., FIG. 5). Inembodiments, the P-GW 623 may be communicatively coupled to anapplication server (application server 530 of FIG. 5 or PDN 630 in FIG.6) via an IP communications interface 525 (see, e.g., FIG. 5). The S5reference point between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622 may provide userplane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW622. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 622 relocation dueto UE 601 mobility and if the S-GW 622 needs to connect to anon-collocated P-GW 623 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 623may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging datacollection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi referencepoint between the P-GW 623 and the packet data network (PDN) 630 may bean operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra operator packetdata network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The P-GW 623may be coupled with a PCRF 626 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 626 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 620. In anon-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 626 in the Home PublicLand Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE 601's Internet ProtocolConnectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario withlocal breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE601's IP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a VisitedPCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). ThePCRF 626 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 630via the P-GW 623. The application server 630 may signal the PCRF 626 toindicate a new service flow and select the appropriate QoS and chargingparameters. The PCRF 626 may provision this rule into a PCEF (not shown)with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which commences the QoS and chargingas specified by the application server 630. The Gx reference pointbetween the PCRF 626 and the P-GW 623 may allow for the transfer of QoSpolicy and charging rules from the PCRF 626 to PCEF in the P-GW 623. AnRx reference point may reside between the PDN 630 (or “AF 630”) and thePCRF 626.

FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a system 700 including a second CN720 in accordance with various embodiments. The system 700 is shown toinclude a UE 701, which may be the same or similar to the UEs 501 and UE601 discussed previously; a (R)AN 710, which may be the same or similarto the RAN 510 and RAN 610 discussed previously, and which may includeRAN nodes 511 discussed previously; and a DN 703, which may be, forexample, operator services, Internet access or 3rd party services; and a5GC 720. The 5GC 720 may include an AUSF 722; an AMF 721; a SMF 724; aNEF 723; a PCF 726; a NRF 725; a UDM 727; an AF 728; a UPF 702; and aNSSF 729.

The UPF 702 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RATmobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN 703, and abranching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 702 may alsoperform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection,enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets(UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handlingfor a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rateenforcement), perform Uplink Traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flowmapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, andperform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notificationtriggering. UPF 702 may include an uplink classifier to support routingtraffic flows to a data network. The DN 703 may represent variousnetwork operator services, Internet access, or third party services. DN703 may include, or be similar to, application server 530 discussedpreviously. The UPF 702 may interact with the SMF 724 via an N4reference point between the SMF 724 and the UPF 702.

The AUSF 722 may store data for authentication of UE 701 and handleauthentication-related functionality. The AUSF 722 may facilitate acommon authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 722may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N12 reference point between theAMF 721 and the AUSF 722; and may communicate with the UDM 727 via anN13 reference point between the UDM 727 and the AUSF 722. Additionally,the AUSF 722 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 721 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., forregistering UE 701, etc.), connection management, reachabilitymanagement, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-relatedevents, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 721 may bea termination point for the an N11 reference point between the AMF 721and the SMF 724. The AMF 721 may provide transport for SM messagesbetween the UE 701 and the SMF 724, and act as a transparent proxy forrouting SM messages. AMF 721 may also provide transport for SMS messagesbetween UE 701 and an SMSF (not shown by FIG. 7). AMF 721 may act asSEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 722 and the UE 701,receipt of an intermediate key that was established as a result of theUE 701 authentication process. Where USIM based authentication is used,the AMF 721 may retrieve the security material from the AUSF 722. AMF721 may also include a SCM function, which receives a key from the SEAthat it uses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF721 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may includeor be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721; andthe AMF 721 may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, andperform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

AMF 721 may also support NAS signaling with a UE 701 over an N3 IWFinterface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrustedentities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface betweenthe (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 for the control plane, and may be atermination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 710 andthe UPF 702 for the user plane. As such, the AMF 721 may handle N2signaling from the SMF 724 and the AMF 721 for PDU sessions and QoS,encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunneling, mark N3user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3packet marking taking into account QoS requirements associated with suchmarking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlinkcontrol-plane NAS signaling between the UE 701 and AMF 721 via an N1reference point between the UE 701 and the AMF 721, and relay uplink anddownlink user-plane packets between the UE 701 and UPF 702. The N3IWFalso provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE 701.The AMF 721 may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, and may be atermination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs 721 and anN17 reference point between the AMF 721 and a 5G-EIR (not shown by FIG.7).

The UE 701 may need to register with the AMF 721 in order to receivenetwork services. RM is used to register or deregister the UE 701 withthe network (e.g., AMF 721), and establish a UE context in the network(e.g., AMF 721). The UE 701 may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or anRM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE 701 is notregistered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 721 holds novalid location or routing information for the UE 701 so the UE 701 isnot reachable by the AMF 721. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 isregistered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 721 may hold avalid location or routing information for the UE 701 so the UE 701 isreachable by the AMF 721. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 mayperform mobility Registration Update procedures, perform periodicRegistration Update procedures triggered by expiration of the periodicupdate timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE 701 is stillactive), and perform a Registration Update procedure to update UEcapability information or to re- negotiate protocol parameters with thenetwork, among others.

The AMF 721 may store one or more RM contexts for the UE 701, where eachRM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RMcontext may be a data structure, database object, etc. that indicates orstores, inter alia, a registration state per access type and theperiodic update timer. The AMF 721 may also store a 5GC MM context thatmay be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. Invarious embodiments, the AMF 721 may store a CE mode B Restrictionparameter of the UE 701 in an associated MM context or RM context. TheAMF 721 may also derive the value, when needed, from the UE's usagesetting parameter already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RMcontext).

CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection betweenthe UE 701 and the AMF 721 over the N1 interface. The signalingconnection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 701and the CN 720, and comprises both the signaling connection between theUE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPPaccess) and the N2 connection for the UE 701 between the AN (e.g., RAN710) and the AMF 721. The UE 701 may operate in one of two CM states,CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 701 is operating in theCM-IDLE state/mode, the UE 701 may have no NAS signaling connectionestablished with the AMF 721 over the N1 interface, and there may be(R)AN 710 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for theUE 701. When the UE 701 is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state/mode, theUE 701 may have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF 721over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 710 signaling connection(e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 701. Establishment of an N2connection between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 may cause the UE 701 totransition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and the UE 701 maytransition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode when N2signaling between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 is released.

The SMF 724 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment,modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node);UE IP address allocation and management (including optionalauthorization); selection and control of UP function; configuringtraffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination;termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controllingpart of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events andinterface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages;downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sentvia AMF over N2 to AN; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM mayrefer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” mayrefer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables theexchange of PDUs between a UE 701 and a data network (DN) 703 identifiedby a Data Network Name (DNN). PDU sessions may be established upon UE701 request, modified upon UE 701 and 5GC 720 request, and released uponUE 701 and 5GC 720 request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1reference point between the UE 701 and the SMF 724. Upon request from anapplication server, the 5GC 720 may trigger a specific application inthe UE 701. In response to receipt of the trigger message, the UE 701may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts/information of thetrigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 701.The identified application(s) in the UE 701 may establish a PDU sessionto a specific DNN. The SMF 724 may check whether the UE 701 requests arecompliant with user subscription information associated with the UE 701.In this regard, the SMF 724 may retrieve and/or request to receiveupdate notifications on SMF 724 level subscription data from the UDM727.

The SMF 724 may include the following roaming functionality: handlinglocal enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN); charging data collectionand charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (in VPLMN for SM eventsand interface to LI system); and support for interaction with externalDN for transport of signaling for PDU sessionauthorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 reference pointbetween two SMFs 724 may be included in the system 700, which may bebetween another SMF 724 in a visited network and the SMF 724 in the homenetwork in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF 724 may exhibit theNsmf service-based interface.

The NEF 723 may provide means for securely exposing the services andcapabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party,internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (e.g., AF 728),edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, theNEF 723 may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF 723may also translate information exchanged with the AF 728 and informationexchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 723 maytranslate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GCinformation. NEF 723 may also receive information from other networkfunctions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other networkfunctions. This information may be stored at the NEF 723 as structureddata, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The storedinformation can then be re-exposed by the NEF 723 to other NFs and AFs,and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF723 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 725 may support service discovery functions, receive NFdiscovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of thediscovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 725 also maintainsinformation of available NF instances and their supported services. Asused herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like mayrefer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 725 may exhibit theNnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 726 may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) toenforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to governnetwork behaviour. The PCF 726 may also implement an FE to accesssubscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of theUDM 727. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N15reference point between the PCF 726 and the AMF 721, which may include aPCF 726 in a visited network and the AMF 721 in case of roamingscenarios. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AF 728 via an N5reference point between the PCF 726 and the AF 728; and with the SMF 724via an N7 reference point between the PCF 726 and the SMF 724. Thesystem 700 and/or CN 720 may also include an N24 reference point betweenthe PCF 726 (in the home network) and a PCF 726 in a visited network.Additionally, the PCF 726 may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 727 may handle subscription-related information to support thenetwork entities' handling of communication sessions, and may storesubscription data of UE 701. For example, subscription data may becommunicated between the UDM 727 and the AMF 721 via an N8 referencepoint between the UDM 727 and the AMF. The UDM 727 may include twoparts, an application FE and a UDR (the FE and UDR are not shown by FIG.7). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 727and the PCF 726, and/or structured data for exposure and applicationdata (including PFDs for application detection, application requestinformation for multiple UEs 701) for the NEF 723. The Nudrservice-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM727, PCF 726, and NEF 723 to access a particular set of the stored data,as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe tonotification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include aUDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, locationmanagement, subscription management and so on. Several different frontends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FEaccesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performsauthentication credential processing, user identification handling,access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscriptionmanagement. The UDR may interact with the SMF 724 via an N10 referencepoint between the UDM 727 and the SMF 724. UDM 727 may also support SMSmanagement, wherein an SMS-FE implements the similar application logicas discussed previously. Additionally, the UDM 727 may exhibit the Nudmservice-based interface.

The AF 728 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provideaccess to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policycontrol. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC 720 and AF 728to provide information to each other via NEF 723, which may be used foredge computing implementations. In such implementations, the networkoperator and third party services may be hosted close to the UE 701access point of attachment to achieve an efficient service deliverythrough the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transportnetwork. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF702 close to the UE 701 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 702 toDN 703 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscriptiondata, UE location, and information provided by the AF 728. In this way,the AF 728 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based onoperator deployment, when AF 728 is considered to be a trusted entity,the network operator may permit AF 728 to interact directly withrelevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 728 may exhibit an Naf service-basedinterface.

The NSSF 729 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE701. The NSSF 729 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping tothe subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 729 may also determine theAMF set to be used to serve the UE 701, or a list of candidate AMF(s)721 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF725. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 701may be triggered by the AMF 721 with which the UE 701 is registered byinteracting with the NSSF 729, which may lead to a change of AMF 721.The NSSF 729 may interact with the AMF 721 via an N22 reference pointbetween AMF 721 and NSSF 729; and may communicate with another NSSF 729in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by FIG. 7).Additionally, the NSSF 729 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

As discussed previously, the CN 720 may include an SMSF, which may beresponsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relayingSM messages to/from the UE 701 to/from other entities, such as anSMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF 721 andUDM 727 for a notification procedure that the UE 701 is available forSMS transfer (e.g., set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM 727when UE 701 is available for SMS).

The CN 120 may also include other elements that are not shown by FIG. 7,such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-EIR, a SEPP, and thelike. The Data Storage system may include a SDSF, an UDSF, and/or thelike. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data into/from the UDSF(e.g., UE contexts), via N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF(not shown by FIG. 7). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing theirrespective unstructured data or individual NFs may each have their ownUDSF located at or near the individual NFs. Additionally, the UDSF mayexhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (not shown by FIG. 7). The5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of PEI for determiningwhether particular equipment/entities are blacklisted from the network;and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topologyhiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control planeinterfaces.

Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/orservice-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however,these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from FIG. 7 forclarity. In one example, the CN 720 may include an Nx interface, whichis an inter-CN interface between the MME (e.g., MME 621) and the AMF 721in order to enable interworking between CN 720 and CN 620. Other exampleinterfaces/reference points may include an N5g-EIR service-basedinterface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between the NRFin the visited network and the NRF in the home network; and an N31reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF inthe home network.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 800 inaccordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 800(or “system 800”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RANnode such as the RAN nodes 511 and/or AP 506 shown and describedpreviously, application server(s) 530, and/or any other element/devicediscussed herein. In other examples, the system 800 could be implementedin or by a UE.

The system 800 includes application circuitry 805, baseband circuitry810, one or more radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815, memory circuitry820, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 825, power teecircuitry 830, network controller circuitry 835, network interfaceconnector 840, satellite positioning circuitry 845, and user interface850. In some embodiments, the device 800 may include additional elementssuch as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, orinput/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the componentsdescribed below may be included in more than one device. For example,said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device forCRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations.

Application circuitry 805 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers,serial interfaces such as SPI, I²C or universal programmable serialinterface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters includinginterval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO),memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC)or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile IndustryProcessor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG)test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 805 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 800. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors,one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISCMachine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing(CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one ormore FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or moremicroprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. Insome embodiments, the application circuitry 805 may comprise, or may be,a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to thevarious embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of applicationcircuitry 805 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon®processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s),Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-basedprocessor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-Afamily of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium™, Inc.; aMIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS WarriorP-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 800may not utilize application circuitry 805, and instead may include aspecial-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from anEPC or 5GC, for example.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 805 may include oneor more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors,programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardwareaccelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deeplearning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processingdevices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such asfield-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logicdevices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs(HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like;programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, thecircuitry of application circuitry 805 may comprise logic blocks orlogic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmedto perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods,functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In suchembodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 805 may includememory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM),anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc.in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 810 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10.

User interface circuitry 850 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the system 800 or peripheralcomponent interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interactionwith the system 800. User interfaces may include, but are not limitedto, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), oneor more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physicalkeyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers orother audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, aheadset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memoryport, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815 may comprise a millimeter wave(mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWaveRFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs mayinclude connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g.,antenna array 1011 of FIG. 10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected tomultiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave andsub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM815, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 820 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate thethree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® andMicron®. Memory circuitry 820 may be implemented as one or more ofsolder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules andplug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 825 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, poweralarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such asa battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detectone or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage)conditions. The power tee circuitry 830 may provide for electrical powerdrawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the infrastructure equipment 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 835 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet,Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching(MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may beprovided to/from the infrastructure equipment 800 via network interfaceconnector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical(commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless.The network controller circuitry 835 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of theaforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the networkcontroller circuitry 835 may include multiple controllers to provideconnectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 includes circuitry to receive and decodesignals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a globalnavigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satelliteconstellations (or GNSS) include United States' Global PositioningSystem (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the EuropeanUnion's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, aregional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigationwith Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integratedby Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 845comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devicessuch as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like tofacilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 845 may include aMicro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) ICthat uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimationwithout GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 845 may also be partof, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 815 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 845 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 805, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes 511,etc.), or the like.

The components shown by FIG. 8 may communicate with one another usinginterface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/orinterconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture(ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI),peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe),or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietarybus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems maybe included, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point to pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a platform 900 (or “device 900”) inaccordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computerplatform 900 may be suitable for use as UEs 501, 601, 701, applicationservers 530, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. Theplatform 900 may include any combinations of the components shown in theexample. The components of platform 900 may be implemented as integratedcircuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or othermodules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereofadapted in the computer platform 900, or as components otherwiseincorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram ofFIG. 9 is intended to show a high level view of components of thecomputer platform 900. However, some of the components shown may beomitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangementof the components shown may occur in other implementations.

Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²Cor universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-countersincluding interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory cardcontrollers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces,and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 905 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 900. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one ormore GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, oneor more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or morePLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, amultithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embeddedprocessor, some other known processing element, or any suitablecombination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 805may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller tooperate according to the various embodiments herein.

As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may includean Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, anAtom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another suchprocessor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. Theprocessors of the application circuitry 905 may also be one or more ofAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or AcceleratedProcessing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc.,Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., TexasInstruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such asMIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors;an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARMCortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. Insome implementations, the application circuitry 905 may be a part of asystem on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry 905 and othercomponents are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a singlepackage, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel®Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 905 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmabledevices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices(PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), andthe like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs(PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of applicationcircuitry 905 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and otherinterconnected resources that may be programmed to perform variousfunctions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of thevarious embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitryof application circuitry 905 may include memory cells (e.g., erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory(e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used tostore logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs)and the like.

The baseband circuitry 910 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 910 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10.

The RFEMs 915 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one ormore sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In someimplementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physicallyseparated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to oneor more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 1011 of FIG.10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. Inalternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functionsmay be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915, which incorporatesboth mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 920 may include any number and type of memorydevices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. Asexamples, the memory circuitry 920 may include one or more of volatilememory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/orsynchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 920 may bedeveloped in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices EngineeringCouncil (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such asLPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 920 may beimplemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits,single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package(Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboardvia a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memorycircuitry 920 may be on-die memory or registers associated with theapplication circuitry 905. To provide for persistent storage ofinformation such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth,memory circuitry 920 may include one or more mass storage devices, whichmay include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard diskdrive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase changememories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. Forexample, the computer platform 900 may incorporate the three-dimensional(3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

Removable memory circuitry 923 may include devices, circuitry,enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portabledata storage devices with the platform 900. These portable data storagedevices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, forexample, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSDcards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, opticaldiscs, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 900 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) thatis used to connect external devices with the platform 900. The externaldevices connected to the platform 900 via the interface circuitryinclude sensor circuitry 921 and electro-mechanical components (EMCs)922, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memorycircuitry 923.

The sensor circuitry 921 include devices, modules, or subsystems whosepurpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send theinformation (sensor data) about the detected events to some other adevice, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, interalia, inertia measurement units (IMUS) comprising accelerometers,gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axisaccelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors;flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors;barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capturedevices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection andranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiationdetector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonictransceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

EMCs 922 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is toenable platform 900 to change its state, position, and/or orientation,or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 922may be configured to generate and send messages/signaling to othercomponents of the platform 900 to indicate a current state of the EMCs922. Examples of the EMCs 922 include one or more power switches, relaysincluding electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays(SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible soundgenerator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, steppermotors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks,and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments,platform 900 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 922 based on oneor more captured events and/or instructions or control signals receivedfrom a service provider and/or various clients.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with positioning circuitry 945. The positioning circuitry945 includes circuitry to receive and decode signalstransmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples ofnavigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States'GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China'sBeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSSaugmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.),or the like. The positioning circuitry 945 comprises various hardwareelements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters,amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTAcommunications) to communicate with components of a positioning network,such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments,the positioning circuitry 945 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses amaster timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSSassistance. The positioning circuitry 945 may also be part of, orinteract with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 915 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 945 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 905, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio basestations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 940. NFCcircuitry 940 is configured to provide contactless, short-rangecommunications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards,wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication betweenNFC circuitry 940 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 900(e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry 940 comprises an NFCcontroller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled withthe NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFCfunctionalities to the NFC circuitry 940 by executing NFC controllerfirmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by theprocessor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmwaremay be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element toemit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag(e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmitstored data to the NFC circuitry 940, or initiate data transfer betweenthe NFC circuitry 940 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphoneor an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform 900.

The driver circuitry 946 may include software and hardware elements thatoperate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform900, attached to the platform 900, or otherwise communicatively coupledwith the platform 900. The driver circuitry 946 may include individualdrivers allowing other components of the platform 900 to interact withor control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be presentwithin, or connected to, the platform 900. For example, driver circuitry946 may include a display driver to control and allow access to adisplay device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to atouchscreen interface of the platform 900, sensor drivers to obtainsensor readings of sensor circuitry 921 and control and allow access tosensor circuitry 921, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of theEMCs 922 and/or control and allow access to the EMCs 922, a cameradriver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device,audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 925 (also referred toas “power management circuitry 925”) may manage power provided tovarious components of the platform 900. In particular, with respect tothe baseband circuitry 910, the PMIC 925 may control power-sourceselection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion.The PMIC 925 may often be included when the platform 900 is capable ofbeing powered by a battery 930, for example, when the device is includedin a UE 501, 601, 701.

In some embodiments, the PMIC 925 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the platform 900. For example, if theplatform 900 is in an RRC Connected state, where it is still connectedto the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it mayenter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a periodof inactivity. During this state, the platform 900 may power down forbrief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data trafficactivity for an extended period of time, then the platform 900 maytransition off to an RRC Idle state, where it disconnects from thenetwork and does not perform operations such as channel qualityfeedback, handover, etc. The platform 900 goes into a very low powerstate and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up tolisten to the network and then powers down again. The platform 900 maynot receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it musttransition back to RRC Connected state. An additional power saving modemay allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longerthan a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). Duringthis time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and maypower down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a largedelay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

A battery 930 may power the platform 900, although in some examples theplatform 900 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have apower supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 930 may be alithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, analuminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In someimplementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 930 may be atypical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 930 may be a “smart battery,” whichincludes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or batterymonitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform900 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 930. The BMS maybe used to monitor other parameters of the battery 930 to providefailure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state offunction (SoF) of the battery 930. The BMS may communicate theinformation of the battery 930 to the application circuitry 905 or othercomponents of the platform 900. The BMS may also include ananalog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry905 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 930 or the currentflow from the battery 930. The battery parameters may be used todetermine actions that the platform 900 may perform, such astransmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and thelike.

A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid maybe coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 930. In some examples, thepower block 930 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtainthe power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in thecomputer platform 900. In these examples, a wireless battery chargingcircuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuitschosen may depend on the size of the battery 930, and thus, the currentrequired. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standardpromulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standardpromulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence chargingstandard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

User interface circuitry 950 includes various input/output (I/O) devicespresent within, or connected to, the platform 900, and includes one ormore user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with theplatform 900 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enableperipheral component interaction with the platform 900. The userinterface circuitry 950 includes input device circuitry and outputdevice circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or morephysical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard,keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset,and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for showing information or otherwise conveyinginformation, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or otherlike information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/orcombinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one ormore simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators(e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs,or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g.,Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays,projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimediaobjects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation ofthe platform 900. The output device circuitry may also include speakersor other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In someembodiments, the sensor circuitry 921 may be used as the input devicecircuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or thelike) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry(e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In anotherexample, NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with anantenna element and a processing device may be included to readelectronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device.Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, anon-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 900 may communicate withone another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, whichmay include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx,PCIe, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or anynumber of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX,for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may beincluded, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 10 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 1010 andradio front end modules (RFEM) 1015 in accordance with variousembodiments. The baseband circuitry 1010 corresponds to the basebandcircuitry 810 and 910 of FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively. The RFEM 1015corresponds to the RFEM 815 and 915 of FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively. Asshown, the RFEMs 1015 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1006,front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1008, antenna array 1011 coupledtogether at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 1010 includes circuitry and/or control logicconfigured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio controlfunctions that enable communication with one or more radio networks viathe RF circuitry 1006. The radio control functions may include, but arenot limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radiofrequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulationcircuitry of the baseband circuitry 1010 may include Fast-FourierTransform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demappingfunctionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may include convolution, tail-bitingconvolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulationand encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples andmay include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. Thebaseband circuitry 1010 is configured to process baseband signalsreceived from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006 and togenerate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to interface withapplication circuitry 805/905 (see FIGS. 8 and 9) for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 may handle various radiocontrol functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the basebandcircuitry 1010 may include one or more single or multi-core processors.For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G basebandprocessor 1004A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 1004B, a 5G/NR basebandprocessor 1004C, or some other baseband processor(s) 1004D for otherexisting generations, generations in development or to be developed inthe future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments,some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may beincluded in modules stored in the memory 1004G and executed via aCentral Processing Unit (CPU) 1004E. In other embodiments, some or allof the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may be provided ashardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with theappropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memorycells. In various embodiments, the memory 1004G may store program codeof a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 1004E (or otherbaseband processor), is to cause the CPU 1004E (or other basebandprocessor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 1010, scheduletasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded(OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®,Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®,ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided byQualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any othersuitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s)(DSP) 1004F. The audio DSP(s) 1004F include elements forcompression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include othersuitable processing elements in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, each of the processors 1004A-1004E includerespective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory1004G. The baseband circuitry 1010 may further include one or moreinterfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, suchas an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to thebaseband circuitry 1010; an application circuitry interface tosend/receive data to/from the application circuitry 805/905 of FIGS.8-10); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RFcircuitry 1006 of FIG. 10; a wireless hardware connectivity interface tosend/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g.,Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/Bluetooth® LowEnergy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a powermanagement interface to send/receive power or control signals to/fromthe PMIC 925.

In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above describedembodiments), baseband circuitry 1010 comprises one or more digitalbaseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnectsubsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interfacesubsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to adigital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem viaanother interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems mayinclude a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC)structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology,such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSPcircuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing acceleratorcircuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital anddigital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one ormore of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In anaspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 1010 may includeprotocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of controlcircuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digitalbaseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radiofront end modules 1015).

Although not shown by FIG. 10, in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes individual processing device(s) to operate oneor more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a “multi-protocolbaseband processor” or “protocol processing circuitry”) and individualprocessing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In theseembodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radiocontrol functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processingcircuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of oneor more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, theprotocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 1010 and/or RFcircuitry 1006 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some othersuitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, theprotocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC,and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processingcircuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the basebandcircuitry 1010 and/or RF circuitry 1006 are part of a Wi-Ficommunication system. In the second example, the protocol processingcircuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC)functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or morememory structures (e.g., 1004G) to store program code and data foroperating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processingcores to execute the program code and perform various operations usingthe data. The baseband circuitry 1010 may also support radiocommunications for more than one wireless protocol.

The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 1010 discussedherein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrateincluding one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged ICsoldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing twoor more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry1010 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposedon a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of theconstituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 and RF circuitry1006 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on achip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or allof the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 may beimplemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with andRF circuitry 1006 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 1006). In yetanother example, some or all of the constituent components of thebaseband circuitry 1010 and the application circuitry 805/905 may beimplemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board(e.g., a “multi-chip package”).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may supportcommunication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodimentsin which the baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to support radiocommunications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to asmulti-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include switches,filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with thewireless network. RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path,which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from theFEM circuitry 1008 and provide baseband signals to the basebandcircuitry 1010. RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signalpath, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signalsprovided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and provide RF output signals tothe FEM circuitry 1008 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006may include mixer circuitry 1006A, amplifier circuitry 1006B and filtercircuitry 1006C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 1006 may include filter circuitry 1006C and mixer circuitry1006A. RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1006Dfor synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1006A of thereceive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments,the mixer circuitry 1006A of the receive signal path may be configuredto down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1008 based onthe synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1006D. Theamplifier circuitry 1006B may be configured to amplify thedown-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1006C may be a low-passfilter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwantedsignals from the down-converted signals to generate output basebandsignals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the basebandcircuitry 1010 for further processing. In some embodiments, the outputbaseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although thisis not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1006A of thereceive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006A of the transmit signalpath may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1006D togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1008. The basebandsignals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and may befiltered by filter circuitry 1006C.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006A of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 1006A of the transmit signal path mayinclude two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 1006A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry1006A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and maybe arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006A of the receive signal path andthe mixer circuitry 1006A of the transmit signal path may be arrangedfor direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006A of the receive signal path andthe mixer circuitry 1006A of the transmit signal path may be configuredfor super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 1006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry1010 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 1006.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006D may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 1006D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1006D may be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1006A of the RFcircuitry 1006 based on a frequency input and a divider control input.In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006D may be a fractionalN/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1010 orthe application circuitry 805/905 depending on the desired outputfrequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may bedetermined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by theapplication circuitry 805/905.

Synthesizer circuitry 1006D of the RF circuitry 1006 may include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1006D may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path, which may includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antennaarray 1011, amplify the received signals and provide the amplifiedversions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1006 for furtherprocessing. FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmit signal path,which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals fortransmission provided by the RF circuitry 1006 for transmission by oneor more of antenna elements of antenna array 1011. In variousembodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signalpaths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 1006, solely in the FEMcircuitry 1008, or in both the RF circuitry 1006 and the FEM circuitry1008.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a TX/RX switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include anLNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1006). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1006), andone or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmissionby one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1011.

The antenna array 1011 comprises one or more antenna elements, each ofwhich is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves totravel through the air and to convert received radio waves intoelectrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided bythe baseband circuitry 1010 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g.,modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via theantenna elements of the antenna array 1011 including one or more antennaelements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional,direction, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formedin a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. Theantenna array 1011 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennasthat are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuitboards. The antenna array 1011 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil(e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled withthe RF circuitry 1006 and/or FEM circuitry 1008 using metal transmissionlines or the like.

Processors of the application circuitry 805/905 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 1010, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 805/905 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received fromthese layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP andUDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer,described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 maycomprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described infurther detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHYlayer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 11 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implementedin a wireless communication device according to various embodiments. Inparticular, FIG. 11 includes an arrangement 1100 showinginterconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The followingdescription of FIG. 11 is provided for various protocol layers/entitiesthat operate in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standards and LTEsystem standards, but some or all of the aspects of FIG. 11 may beapplicable to other wireless communication network systems as well.

The protocol layers of arrangement 1100 may include one or more of PHY1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, SDAP 1147, RRC 1155, and NAS layer1157, in addition to other higher layer functions not illustrated. Theprotocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g.,items 1159, 1156, 1150, 1149, 1145, 1135, 1125, and 1115 in FIG. 11)that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

The PHY 1110 may transmit and receive physical layer signals 1105 thatmay be received from or transmitted to one or more other communicationdevices. The physical layer signals 1105 may comprise one or morephysical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY 1110 mayfurther perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC),power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization andhandover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, suchas the RRC 1155. The PHY 1110 may still further perform error detectionon the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC)coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation ofphysical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physicalchannels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance ofPHY 1110 may process requests from and provide indications to aninstance of MAC 1120 via one or more PHY-SAP 1115. According to someembodiments, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP 1115 maycomprise one or more transport channels.

Instance(s) of MAC 1120 may process requests from, and provideindications to, an instance of RLC 1130 via one or more MAC-SAPs 1125.These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP 1125 maycomprise one or more logical channels. The MAC 1120 may perform mappingbetween the logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MACSDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY1110 via the transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or morelogical channels from TBs delivered from the PHY 1110 via transportchannels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling informationreporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channelprioritization.

Instance(s) of RLC 1130 may process requests from and provideindications to an instance of PDCP 1140 via one or more radio linkcontrol service access points (RLC-SAP) 1135. These requests andindications communicated via RLC-SAP 1135 may comprise one or more RLCchannels. The RLC 1130 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation,including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), andAcknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC 1130 may execute transfer of upper layerprotocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeatrequest (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation andreassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC 1130 mayalso execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers,reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicatedata for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM datatransfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLCre-establishment.

Instance(s) of PDCP 1140 may process requests from and provideindications to instance(s) of RRC 1155 and/or instance(s) of SDAP 1147via one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points(PDCP-SAP) 1145. These requests and indications communicated viaPDCP-SAP 1145 may comprise one or more radio bearers. The PDCP 1140 mayexecute header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCPSequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUsat re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layerSDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLCAM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protectionand integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-baseddiscard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering,deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

Instance(s) of SDAP 1147 may process requests from and provideindications to one or more higher layer protocol entities via one ormore SDAP-SAP 1149. These requests and indications communicated viaSDAP-SAP 1149 may comprise one or more QoS flows. The SDAP 1147 may mapQoS flows to DRBs, and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and ULpackets. A single SDAP entity 1147 may be configured for an individualPDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 510 may control the mappingof QoS Flows to DRB(s) in two different ways, reflective mapping orexplicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 1147 of a UE 501 maymonitor the QFIs of the DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the samemapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP1147 of the UE 501 may map the UL packets belonging to the QoS flows(s)corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU session observed in the DLpackets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 710 maymark DL packets over the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. The explicitmapping may involve the RRC 1155 configuring the SDAP 1147 with anexplicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which may be stored and followedby the SDAP 1147. In embodiments, the SDAP 1147 may only be used in NRimplementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

The RRC 1155 may configure, via one or more management service accesspoints (M-SAP), aspects of one or more protocol layers, which mayinclude one or more instances of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140and SDAP 1147. In embodiments, an instance of RRC 1155 may processrequests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities 1157via one or more RRC-SAPs 1156. The main services and functions of theRRC 1155 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included inMIBs or SIBs related to the NAS), broadcast of system informationrelated to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenanceand release of an RRC connection between the UE 501 and RAN 510 (e.g.,RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connectionmodification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration,maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, securityfunctions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurementconfiguration for UE measurement reporting. The MIBs and SIBs maycomprise one or more IEs, which may each comprise individual data fieldsor data structures.

The NAS 1157 may form the highest stratum of the control plane betweenthe UE 501 and the AMF 721. The NAS 1157 may support the mobility of theUEs 501 and the session management procedures to establish and maintainIP connectivity between the UE 501 and a P-GW in LTE systems.

According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities ofarrangement 1100 may be implemented in UEs 501, RAN nodes 511, AMF 721in NR implementations or MME 621 in LTE implementations, UPF 702 in NRimplementations or S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in LTE implementations, or thelike to be used for control plane or user plane communications protocolstack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one ormore protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 501,gNB 511, AMF 721, etc. may communicate with a respective peer protocolentity that may be implemented in or on another device using theservices of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform suchcommunication. In some embodiments, a gNB-CU of the gNB 511 may host theRRC 1155, SDAP 1147, and PDCP 1140 of the gNB that controls theoperation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 511 mayeach host the RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110 of the gNB 511.

In a first example, a control plane protocol stack may comprise, inorder from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS 1157, RRC 1155, PDCP 1140,RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110. In this example, upper layers 1160 maybe built on top of the NAS 1157, which includes an IP layer 1161, anSCTP 1162, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1163.

In NR implementations, the AP 1163 may be an NG application protocollayer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1163 for the NG interface 513 defined between theNG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721, or the AP 1163 may be an Xn applicationprotocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1163 for the Xn interface 512 that isdefined between two or more RAN nodes 511.

The NG-AP 1163 may support the functions of the NG interface 513 and maycomprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP may be a unit ofinteraction between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721. The NG-AP 1163services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., servicesrelated to a UE 501) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., servicesrelated to the whole NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 511and AMF 721). These services may include functions including, but notlimited to: a paging function for the sending of paging requests toNG-RAN nodes 511 involved in a particular paging area; a UE contextmanagement function for allowing the AMF 721 to establish, modify,and/or release a UE context in the AMF 721 and the NG-RAN node 511; amobility function for UEs 501 in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HOsto support mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs to supportmobility from/to EPS systems; a NAS Signaling Transport function fortransporting or rerouting NAS messages between UE 501 and AMF 721; a NASnode selection function for determining an association between the AMF721 and the UE 501; NG interface management function(s) for setting upthe NG interface and monitoring for errors over the NG interface; awarning message transmission function for providing means to transferwarning messages via NG interface or cancel ongoing broadcast of warningmessages; a Configuration Transfer function for requesting andtransferring of RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information,performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 511 viaCN 520; and/or other like functions.

The XnAP 1163 may support the functions of the Xn interface 512 and maycomprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. TheXnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UEmobility within the NG RAN 511 (or E-UTRAN 610), such as handoverpreparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures,UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN pagingprocedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The XnAPglobal procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to aspecific UE 501, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RANupdate procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

In LTE implementations, the AP 1163 may be an S1 Application Protocollayer (S1-AP) 1163 for the S1 interface 513 defined between an E-UTRANnode 511 and an MME, or the AP 1163 may be an X2 application protocollayer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1163 for the X2 interface 512 that is definedbetween two or more E-UTRAN nodes 511.

The S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1163 may support the functionsof the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, theS1-AP may comprise S1-AP EPs. An S1-AP EP may be a unit of interactionbetween the E-UTRAN node 511 and an MME 621 within an LTE CN 520. TheS1-AP 1163 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services andnon UE-associated services. These services perform functions including,but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UEcapability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RANInformation Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The X2AP 1163 may support the functions of the X2 interface 512 and maycomprise X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. TheX2AP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UEmobility within the E-UTRAN 520, such as handover preparation andcancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE contextretrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dualconnectivity related procedures, and the like. The X2AP globalprocedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE501, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indicationprocedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, andthe like.

The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 1162 mayprovide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP orXnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTEimplementations). The SCTP 1162 may ensure reliable delivery ofsignaling messages between the RAN node 511 and the AMF 721/MME 621based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP 1161. TheInternet Protocol layer (IP) 1161 may be used to perform packetaddressing and routing functionality. In some implementations the IPlayer 1161 may use point-to-point transmission to deliver and conveyPDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 511 may comprise L2 and L1 layercommunication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF toexchange information.

In a second example, a user plane protocol stack may comprise, in orderfrom highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP 1147, PDCP 1140, RLC 1130, MAC1120, and PHY 1110. The user plane protocol stack may be used forcommunication between the UE 501, the RAN node 511, and UPF 702 in NRimplementations or an S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in LTE implementations. Inthis example, upper layers 1151 may be built on top of the SDAP 1147,and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer(UDP/IP) 1152, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocolfor the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1153, and a User Plane PDU layer (UPPDU) 1163.

The transport network layer 1154 (also referred to as a “transportlayer”) may be built on IP transport, and the GTP-U 1153 may be used ontop of the UDP/IP layer 1152 (comprising a UDP layer and IP layer) tocarry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the“Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routingfunctionality. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packetsin any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example.

The GTP-U 1153 may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS corenetwork and between the radio access network and the core network. Theuser data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPPformats, for example. The UDP/IP 1152 may provide checksums for dataintegrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the sourceand destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected dataflows. The RAN node 511 and the S-GW 622 may utilize an S1-U interfaceto exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer(e.g., PHY 1110), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140,and/or SDAP 1147), the UDP/IP layer 1152, and the GTP-U 1153. The S-GW622 and the P-GW 623 may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange userplane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer, an L2 layer, theUDP/IP layer 1152, and the GTP-U 1153. As discussed previously, NASprotocols may support the mobility of the UE 501 and the sessionmanagement procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity betweenthe UE 501 and the P-GW 623.

Moreover, although not shown by FIG. 11, an application layer may bepresent above the AP 1163 and/or the transport network layer 1154. Theapplication layer may be a layer in which a user of the UE 501, RAN node511, or other network element interacts with software applications beingexecuted, for example, by application circuitry 805 or applicationcircuitry 905, respectively. The application layer may also provide oneor more interfaces for software applications to interact withcommunications systems of the UE 501 or RAN node 511, such as thebaseband circuitry 1010. In some implementations the IP layer and/or theapplication layer may provide the same or similar functionality aslayers 5-7, or portions thereof, of the Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) model (e.g., OSI Layer 7—the application layer, OSI Layer 6—thepresentation layer, and OSI Layer 5—the session layer).

FIG. 12 illustrates components of a core network in accordance withvarious embodiments. The components of the CN 620 may be implemented inone physical node or separate physical nodes including components toread and execute instructions from a machine-readable orcomputer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium). In embodiments, the components of CN 720 may beimplemented in a same or similar manner as discussed herein with regardto the components of CN 620. In some embodiments, NFV is utilized tovirtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions viaexecutable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storagemediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation ofthe CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice 1201, and individuallogical instantiations of the CN 620 may provide specific networkcapabilities and network characteristics. A logical instantiation of aportion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 1202(e.g., the network sub-slice 1202 is shown to include the P-GW 623 andthe PCRF 626).

As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the likemay refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer toa concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code. A network instance may refer to informationidentifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection androuting in case of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. Anetwork slice instance may refer to a set of network functions (NFs)instances and the resources (e.g., compute, storage, and networkingresources) required to deploy the network slice.

With respect to 5G systems (see, e.g., FIG. 7), a network slice alwayscomprises a RAN part and a CN part. The support of network slicingrelies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled bydifferent PDU sessions. The network can realize the different networkslices by scheduling and also by providing different L1/L2configurations. The UE 701 provides assistance information for networkslice selection in an appropriate RRC message, if it has been providedby NAS. While the network can support large number of slices, the UEneed not support more than 8 slices simultaneously.

A network slice may include the CN 720 control plane and user plane NFs,NG-RANs 710 in a serving PLMN, and a N3IWF functions in the servingPLMN. Individual network slices may have different S-NSSAI and/or mayhave different SSTs. NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and eachnetwork slice is uniquely identified by an S-NSSAI. Network slices maydiffer for supported features and network functions optimizations,and/or multiple network slice instances may deliver the sameservice/features but for different groups of UEs 701 (e.g., enterpriseusers). For example, individual network slices may deliver differentcommitted service(s) and/or may be dedicated to a particular customer orenterprise. In this example, each network slice may have differentS-NSSAIs with the same SST but with different slice differentiators.Additionally, a single UE may be served with one or more network sliceinstances simultaneously via a 5G AN and associated with eight differentS-NSSAIs. Moreover, an AMF 721 instance serving an individual UE 701 maybelong to each of the network slice instances serving that UE.

Network Slicing in the NG-RAN 710 involves RAN slice awareness. RANslice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic fordifferent network slices, which have been pre-configured. Sliceawareness in the NG-RAN 710 is introduced at the PDU session level byindicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to a PDU session in all signalingthat includes PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN 710supports the slice enabling in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., the setof network functions that comprise each slice) is implementationdependent. The NG-RAN 710 selects the RAN part of the network sliceusing assistance information provided by the UE 701 or the 5GC 720,which unambiguously identifies one or more of the pre-configured networkslices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN 710 also supports resource management andpolicy enforcement between slices as per SLAs. A single NG-RAN node maysupport multiple slices, and the NG-RAN 710 may also apply anappropriate RRM policy for the SLA in place to each supported slice. TheNG-RAN 710 may also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

The NG-RAN 710 may also use the UE assistance information for theselection of an AMF 721 during an initial attach, if available. TheNG-RAN 710 uses the assistance information for routing the initial NASto an AMF 721. If the NG-RAN 710 is unable to select an AMF 721 usingthe assistance information, or the UE 701 does not provide any suchinformation, the NG-RAN 710 sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF721, which may be among a pool of AMFs 721. For subsequent accesses, theUE 701 provides a temp ID, which is assigned to the UE 701 by the 5GC720, to enable the NG-RAN 710 to route the NAS message to theappropriate AMF 721 as long as the temp ID is valid. The NG-RAN 710 isaware of, and can reach, the AMF 721 that is associated with the tempID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies.

The NG-RAN 710 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 710resource isolation may be achieved by means of RRM policies andprotection mechanisms that should avoid that shortage of sharedresources if one slice breaks the service level agreement for anotherslice. In some implementations, it is possible to fully dedicate NG-RAN710 resources to a certain slice. How NG-RAN 710 supports resourceisolation is implementation dependent.

Some slices may be available only in part of the network. Awareness inthe NG-RAN 710 of the slices supported in the cells of its neighbors maybe beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. The sliceavailability may not change within the UE's registration area. TheNG-RAN 710 and the 5GC 720 are responsible to handle a service requestfor a slice that may or may not be available in a given area. Admissionor rejection of access to a slice may depend on factors such as supportfor the slice, availability of resources, support of the requestedservice by NG-RAN 710.

The UE 701 may be associated with multiple network slicessimultaneously. In case the UE 701 is associated with multiple slicessimultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and forintra-frequency cell reselection, the UE 701 tries to camp on the bestcell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities can beused to control the frequency on which the UE 701 camps. The 5GC 720 isto validate that the UE 701 has the rights to access a network slice.Prior to receiving an Initial Context Setup Request message, the NG-RAN710 may be allowed to apply some provisional/local policies, based onawareness of a particular slice that the UE 701 is requesting to access.During the initial context setup, the NG-RAN 710 is informed of theslice for which resources are being requested.

NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one ormore NFs, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physicalresources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware,storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be usedto execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, of a system 1300 to support NFV. The system 1300 isillustrated as including a VIM 1302, an NFVI 1304, an VNFM 1306, VNFs1308, an EM 1310, an NFVO 1312, and a NM 1314.

The VIM 1302 manages the resources of the NFVI 1304. The NFVI 1304 caninclude physical or virtual resources and applications (includinghypervisors) used to execute the system 1300. The VIM 1302 may managethe life cycle of virtual resources with the NFVI 1304 (e.g., creation,maintenance, and tear down of VMs associated with one or more physicalresources), track VM instances, track performance, fault and security ofVM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instancesand associated physical resources to other management systems.

The VNFM 1306 may manage the VNFs 1308. The VNFs 1308 may be used toexecute EPC components/functions. The VNFM 1306 may manage the lifecycle of the VNFs 1308 and track performance, fault and security of thevirtual aspects of VNFs 1308. The EM 1310 may track the performance,fault and security of the functional aspects of VNFs 1308. The trackingdata from the VNFM 1306 and the EM 1310 may comprise, for example, PMdata used by the VIM 1302 or the NFVI 1304. Both the VNFM 1306 and theEM 1310 can scale up/down the quantity of VNFs of the system 1300.

The NFVO 1312 may coordinate, authorize, release and engage resources ofthe NFVI 1304 in order to provide the requested service (e.g., toexecute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM 1314 may provide apackage of end-user functions with the responsibility for the managementof a network, which may include network elements with VNFs,non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs mayoccur via the EM 1310).

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 14 shows a diagrammaticrepresentation of hardware resources 1400 including one or moreprocessors (or processor cores) 1410, one or more memory/storage devices1420, and one or more communication resources 1430, each of which may becommunicatively coupled via a bus 1440. For embodiments where nodevirtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1402 may beexecuted to provide an execution environment for one or more networkslices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1400.

The processors 1410 may include, for example, a processor 1412 and aprocessor 1414. The processor(s) 1410 may be, for example, a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC)processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, agraphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, anASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), anotherprocessor (including those discussed herein), or any suitablecombination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1420 may include main memory, disk storage,or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1420 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1430 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 1404 or one or more databases 1406 via anetwork 1408. For example, the communication resources 1430 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellularcommunication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® LowEnergy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communicationcomponents.

Instructions 1450 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 1410 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. The instructions 1450 may reside, completely orpartially, within at least one of the processors 1410 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1420, or anysuitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of theinstructions 1450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1400 fromany combination of the peripheral devices 1404 or the databases 1406.Accordingly, the memory of processors 1410, the memory/storage devices1420, the peripheral devices 1404, and the databases 1406 are examplesof computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth inone or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one ormore operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth inthe example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry asdescribed above in connection with one or more of the preceding figuresmay be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of theexamples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated witha UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above inconnection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configuredto operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forthbelow in the example section.

Example Procedures

In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s),chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, ofFIGS. 5-14, or some other figure herein, may be configured to performone or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, orportions thereof. One such process is depicted in FIG. 15. For example,the process 1500 may include: generating a MsgA of a random accesschannel (RACH) procedure associated with the NR network, the MsgA havinga physical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associatedphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission duringthe RACH procedure, as shown in 1502; and transmitting the MsgA to abase station (gNB) over unlicensed spectrum of the NR network during theRACH procedure, as shown in 1504.

In embodiments, the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion areconfigured to cause the MsgA to satisfy an occupied channel bandwidth(OCB) requirement of the unlicensed spectrum during the RACH procedure.

In embodiments, the generating further comprises configuring, by the UE,the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion separately, andallocating, by the UE, a reserved state in a time domain resourceallocation to indicate that the associated PUSCH occasion follows rightafter a preamble of the PRACH occasion.

In embodiments, the generating further includes inserting, by the UE, anextension of a cyclic prefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gapbetween the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.

In embodiments, the process 1500 further includes inserting, by the UE,a copy of a preamble of the MsgA PRACH to fill a gap between the PRACHoccasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.

In embodiments, the process further includes defining, by the UE, abitmap, wherein each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether acorresponding PRACH occasion is enabled or disabled during the RACHprocedure.

In embodiments, the process further includes configuring, by the UE, thePUSCH occasion based on a frequency offset, wherein the frequency offsetis based on an interlace index or a physical resource block (PRB) index.

The steps and/or processes in process 1500 can be at least partiallyperformed by one or more of the processors, processor circuitry, and/orcircuitry described herein, including those contained in the applicationcircuitry 805 or 905, baseband circuitry 810 or 910, and/or processors1410.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth inone or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one ormore operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth inthe example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry asdescribed above in connection with one or more of the preceding figuresmay be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of theexamples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated witha UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above inconnection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configuredto operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forthbelow in the example section.

As described above, aspects of the present technology may include thegathering and use of data available from various sources, e.g., toimprove or enhance functionality. The present disclosure contemplatesthat in some instances, this gathered data may include personalinformation data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact orlocate a specific person. Such personal information data can includedemographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, emailaddresses, Twitter ID's, home addresses, data or records relating to auser's health or level of fitness (e.g., vital signs measurements,medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or anyother identifying or personal information. The present disclosurerecognizes that the use of such personal information data, in thepresent technology, may be used to the benefit of users.

The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities shouldimplement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining personal information data private andsecure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users, and shouldbe updated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection/sharing should only occur after receivingthe informed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities shouldconsider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access tosuch personal information data and ensuring that others with access tothe personal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in the US,collection of, or access to, certain health data may be governed byfederal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA); whereas health data in other countries maybe subject to other regulations and policies and should be handledaccordingly. Hence different privacy practices should be maintained fordifferent personal data types in each country.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, the presenttechnology may be configurable to allow users to selectively “opt in” or“opt out” of participation in the collection of personal informationdata, e.g., during registration for services or anytime thereafter. Inaddition to providing “opt in” and “opt out” options, the presentdisclosure contemplates providing notifications relating to the accessor use of personal information. For instance, a user may be notifiedupon downloading an app that their personal information data will beaccessed and then reminded again just before personal information datais accessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth,etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g.,collecting location data a city level rather than at an address level),controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across users),and/or other methods.

Therefore, although the present disclosure may broadly cover use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 may include a method of wireless communication for a fifthgeneration (5G) or new radio (NR) system: receiving or causing toreceive, by a UE from a gNodeB (gNB), a configuration of an MsgAphysical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associatedphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion in a first step oftwo-step Random access (RACH) procedure; transmitting or causing totransmit, by UE, an MsgA PRACH and associated PUSCH in accordance withthe configuration.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein if PUSCH occasions are separately configured from PRACHoccasion, one of the reserved state in the time domain resourceallocation may be used to indicate that MsgA PUSCH occasion followsright after associated PRACH preamble.

Example 3 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein extension of cyclic prefix (CP) of MsgA PUSCH may beinserted to fill in the gap between PRACH and MsgA PUSCH occasion.

Example 4 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gap may be replaced by the copy of PRACH preamble,e.g., first part or last part of PRACH preamble.

Example 5 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein a bitmap may be defined, wherein each bit in the bitmapmay be used to indicate whether the corresponding PRACH occasion isenabled or disabled for 2-step RACH.

Example 6 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein multiple time domain PRACH occasions are configured in aslot, only the first PRACH occasion is used for the PRACH transmissionsand the remaining time domain resources can be used for correspondingMsg A PUSCH transmission; wherein one bit indication in the PRACHconfiguration can be used to indicate whether to use only the firstPRACH occasion or all PRACH occasions.

Example 7 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein UE should apply different timing advance to PRACH andPUSCH to make sure that the gap between PRACH and PUSCH is smaller thanthat requiring additional listen before talk (LBT) for PUSCHs.

Example 8 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein one or more interlaces are allocated for MsgA PUSCHoccasion for NR with unlicensed operation.

Example 9 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for the configuration of MsgA PUSCH occasion, frequencyoffset in terms of interlace index or physical resource block (PRB)index in relative to associated PRACH occasion may be configured for NRwith unlicensed operation.

Example 10 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein frequency offset, e.g., PRB index or interlace index maybe determined in accordance with the numerology for the transmission ofMsgA PUSCH or PRACH preamble.

Example 11 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein when Occupied Channel Bandwidth (OCB) requirement is notmandated by regulation for temporal transmission within a channeloccupied time (COT), MsgA PRACH transmission may be based on localizedfrequency mapping similar to NR-PRACH, whereas the following MsgA PUSCHtransmission may be based on interlace based structure that meets OCBrequirement.

Example 12 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein multiple frequency domain resources may be configuredfor MsgA transmission on multiple configured bandwidth parts and UE maychoose one of the configured bandwidth parts as initial active bandwidthpart based on the LBT outcome and transmit MsgA on the correspondingfrequency domain resource.

Example 13 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein initialization of scrambling sequence generator of MsgAPUSCH in two-step RACH may include associated PRACH occasion index orPRACH preamble index of associated PRACH occasion or a combinationthereof.

Example 14 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein given that gNB may not be aware of the triggers from UEside, it may be more desirable to specify n_(ID) as n_(ID)=n_(ID)^(cell) for two-step RACH operation.

Example 15 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein pseudo-random sequence of Demodulation Reference Signal(DMRS) may be initialized based on the higher layer configured ID orcell ID, associated PRACH occasion index or PRACH preamble index ofassociated PRACH occasion or a combination thereof.

Example 16 may include a method comprising: receiving or causing toreceive, from a gNodeB (gNB), a message including a configuration ofphysical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associatedphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion; transmitting or causingto transmit, a PRACH and associated PUSCH in accordance with theconfiguration, wherein the PUSCH is transmitted immediately in timeafter the PRACH.

Example 17 may include the method of example 16 or another exampleherein, wherein the message is a first message of a two-step randomaccess (RACH) procedure.

Example 18 may include the method of example 16 or another exampleherein, wherein the two-step RACH procedure further includes receiving asecond message from the gNB responsive to the first message.

Example 19 may include the method of example 18 or another exampleherein, wherein the first message is a message A (MsgA) and the secondmessage is a message B (MsgB).

Example 20 may include the method of example 19 or another exampleherein, wherein the MsgB includes a Msg2 and a Msg4 defined according toa 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 21 may include the method of example 16-20 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indicator that the PUSCHshould be transmitted immediately after the PRACH preamble.

Example 22 may include the method of example 16-21 or another exampleherein, wherein the PRACH preamble is transmitted in a PRACH occasion,and wherein the method further comprises disabling one or moreadditional PRACH occasions that would otherwise collide with the PUSCH.

Example 23 may include the method of example 22 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indication of the one ormore additional PRACH occasions to be disabled.

Example 24 may include the method of example 23, wherein the indicationincludes a bitmap, with individual bits of the bitmap corresponding torespective PRACH occasions to indicate whether the respective PRACHoccasions should be disabled.

Example 25 may include the method of example 16-24 or another exampleherein, wherein all or selected aspects of the method are performed by aUE or a portion thereof.

Example 26 may include a method comprising: receiving or causing toreceive, from a gNodeB (gNB), a message including a configuration ofphysical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associatedphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion; transmitting or causingto transmit, a PRACH in the PRACH occasion and an associated PUSCH inthe PUSCH occasion in accordance with the configuration, wherein thereis a gap in time between the PUSCH and the PRACH and transmitting orcausing to transmit in the entire gap.

Example 27 may include the method of example 26 or another exampleherein, wherein an extension of the cyclic prefix of the PUSCH istransmitted in the gap.

Example 28 may include the method of example 25-27 or another exampleherein, wherein the message is a first message of a two-step randomaccess (RACH) procedure.

Example 29 may include the method of example 28 or another exampleherein, wherein the two-step RACH procedure further includes receiving asecond message from the gNB responsive to the first message.

Example 30 may include the method of example 29 or another exampleherein, wherein the first message is a message A (MsgA) and the secondmessage is a message B (MsgB).

Example 31 may include the method of example 30 or another exampleherein, wherein the MsgB includes a Msg2 and a Msg4 defined according toa 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 32 may include the method of example 26-31 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indicator that the PUSCHshould be transmitted immediately after the PRACH preamble.

Example 33 may include the method of example 26-32 or another exampleherein, wherein the PRACH preamble is transmitted in a PRACH occasion,and wherein the method further comprises disabling one or moreadditional PRACH occasions that would otherwise collide with the PUSCH.

Example 34 may include the method of example 33 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indication of the one ormore additional PRACH occasions to be disabled.

Example 35 may include the method of example 34, wherein the indicationincludes a bitmap, with individual bits of the bitmap corresponding torespective PRACH occasions to indicate whether the respective PRACHoccasions should be disabled.

Example 36 may include the method of example 26-35 or another exampleherein, wherein all or selected aspects of the method are performed by aUE or a portion thereof.

Example 37 may include a method comprising: transmitting or causing totransmit, to a UE, a message including a configuration of physicalrandom access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) occasion; and receiving or causing to receive, aPRACH and associated PUSCH in accordance with the configuration, whereinthe PUSCH is received immediately in time after the PRACH.

Example 38 may include the method of example 37 or another exampleherein, wherein the message is a first message of a two-step randomaccess (RACH) procedure.

Example 39 may include the method of example 38 or another exampleherein, wherein the two-step RACH procedure further includestransmitting a second message to the UE responsive to the first message.

Example 40 may include the method of example 39 or another exampleherein, wherein the first message is a message A (MsgA) and the secondmessage is a message B (MsgB).

Example 41 may include the method of example 40 or another exampleherein, wherein the MsgB includes a Msg2 and a Msg4 defined according toa 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 42 may include the method of example 37-41 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indicator that the PUSCHshould be transmitted immediately after the PRACH preamble.

Example 43 may include the method of example 37-42 or another exampleherein, wherein the PRACH preamble is transmitted in a PRACH occasion,and wherein the method further comprises disabling one or moreadditional PRACH occasions that would otherwise collide with the PUSCH.

Example 44 may include the method of example 43 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indication of the one ormore additional PRACH occasions to be disabled.

Example 45 may include the method of example 44 or another exampleherein, wherein the indication includes a bitmap, with individual bitsof the bitmap corresponding to respective PRACH occasions to indicatewhether the respective PRACH occasions should be disabled.

Example 46 may include the method of example 37-45 or another exampleherein, wherein all or selected aspects of the method are performed by agNB or a portion thereof.

Example 47 may include a method comprising: transmitting or causing totransmit, to a UE, a message including a configuration of physicalrandom access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) occasion; receiving or causing to receive, aPRACH and associated PUSCH in accordance with the configuration, whereinthe PUSCH is received immediately in time after the PRACH; and receivingor causing to receive a transmission from the UE in the entire gap.

Example 48 may include the method of example 47 or another exampleherein, wherein an extension of the cyclic prefix of the PUSCH isreceived in the gap.

Example 49 may include the method of example 48 or another exampleherein, wherein the message is a first message of a two-step randomaccess (RACH) procedure.

Example 50 may include the method of example 49 or another exampleherein, wherein the two-step RACH procedure further includestransmitting a second message to the UE responsive to the first message.

Example 51 may include the method of example 50 or another exampleherein, wherein the first message is a message A (MsgA) and the secondmessage is a message B (MsgB).

Example 52 may include the method of example 51 or another exampleherein, wherein the MsgB includes a Msg2 and a Msg4 defined according toa 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 53 may include the method of example 47-52 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indicator that the PUSCHshould be transmitted immediately after the PRACH preamble.

Example 54 may include the method of example 47-53 or another exampleherein, wherein the PRACH preamble is transmitted in a PRACH occasion,and wherein the method further comprises disabling one or moreadditional PRACH occasions that would otherwise collide with the PUSCH.

Example 55 may include the method of example 54 or another exampleherein, wherein the configuration includes an indication of the one ormore additional PRACH occasions to be disabled.

Example 56 may include the method of example 55 or another exampleherein, wherein the indication includes a bitmap, with individual bitsof the bitmap corresponding to respective PRACH occasions to indicatewhether the respective PRACH occasions should be disabled.

Example 57 may include the method of example 47-55 or another exampleherein, wherein all or selected aspects of the method are performed by agNB or a portion thereof.

Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-57, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-57, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example Z03 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-57, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-57, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z05 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-57, or portions thereof.

Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any ofexamples 1-57, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocoldata unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any ofexamples 1-57, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described inthe present disclosure.

Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in orrelated to any of examples 1-57, or portions or parts thereof, orotherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame,segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or relatedto any of examples 1-57, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwisedescribed in the present disclosure.

Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carryingcomputer-readable instructions, wherein execution of thecomputer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause theone or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process asdescribed in or related to any of examples 1-57, or portions thereof.

Example Z11 may include a computer program comprising instructions,wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause theprocessing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process asdescribed in or related to any of examples 1-57, or portions thereof.

Example Z12 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown anddescribed herein.

Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example Z15 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any otherexample (or combination of examples), unless explicitly statedotherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementationsprovides illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise formdisclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Abbreviations

For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviationsmay apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein, but is notmeant to be limiting.

-   -   3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project    -   4G Fourth Generation    -   5G Fifth Generation    -   5GC 5G Core network    -   ACK Acknowledgement    -   AF Application Function    -   AM Acknowledged Mode    -   AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate    -   AMF Access and Mobility Management Function    -   AN Access Network    -   ANR Automatic Neighbour Relation    -   AP Application Protocol, Antenna Port, Access Point    -   API Application Programming Interface    -   APN Access Point Name    -   ARP Allocation and Retention Priority    -   ARQ Automatic Repeat Request    -   AS Access Stratum    -   ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One    -   AUSF Authentication Server Function    -   AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise    -   BCH Broadcast Channel    -   BER Bit Error Ratio    -   BFD Beam Failure Detection    -   BLER Block Error Rate    -   BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying    -   BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server    -   BSS Business Support System    -   BS Base Station    -   BSR Buffer Status Report    -   BW Bandwidth    -   BWP Bandwidth Part    -   C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity    -   CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority    -   CAPEX CAPital EXpenditure    -   CBRA Contention Based Random Access    -   CC Component Carrier, Country Code, Cryptographic Checksum    -   CCA Clear Channel Assessment    -   CCE Control Channel Element    -   CCCH Common Control Channel    -   CE Coverage Enhancement    -   CDM Content Delivery Network    -   CDMA Code-Division Multiple Access    -   CFRA Contention Free Random Access    -   CG Cell Group    -   CI Cell Identity    -   CID Cell-ID (e.g., positioning method)    -   CIM Common Information Model    -   CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio    -   CK Cipher Key    -   CM Connection Management, Conditional Mandatory    -   CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service    -   CMD Command    -   CMS Cloud Management System    -   CO Conditional Optional    -   CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point    -   CORESET Control Resource Set    -   COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf    -   CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point    -   CPD Connection Point Descriptor    -   CPE Customer Premise Equipment    -   CPICH Common Pilot Channel    -   CQI Channel Quality Indicator    -   CPU CSI processing unit, Central Processing Unit    -   C/R Command/Response field bit    -   CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN    -   CRB Common Resource Block    -   CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check    -   CRI Channel-State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS        Resource Indicator    -   C-RNTI Cell RNTI    -   CS Circuit Switched    -   CSAR Cloud Service Archive    -   CSI Channel-State Information    -   CSI-IM CSI Interference Measurement    -   CSI-RS CSI Reference Signal    -   CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power    -   CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal received quality    -   CSI-SINR CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio    -   CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access    -   CSMA/CA CSMA with collision avoidance    -   CSS Common Search Space, Cell-specific Search Space    -   CTS Clear-to-Send    -   CW Codeword    -   CWS Contention Window Size    -   D2D Device-to-Device    -   DC Dual Connectivity, Direct Current    -   DCI Downlink Control Information    -   DF Deployment Flavour    -   DL Downlink    -   DMTF Distributed Management Task Force    -   DPDK Data Plane Development Kit    -   DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal    -   DN Data network    -   DRB Data Radio Bearer    -   DRS Discovery Reference Signal    -   DRX Discontinuous Reception    -   DSL Domain Specific Language. Digital Subscriber Line    -   DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer    -   DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot    -   E-LAN Ethernet Local Area Network    -   E2E End-to-End    -   ECCA extended clear channel assessment, extended CCA    -   ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE    -   ED Energy Detection    -   EDGE Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)    -   EGMF Exposure Governance Management Function    -   EGPRS Enhanced GPRS    -   EIR Equipment Identity Register    -   eLAA enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, enhanced LAA    -   EM Element Manager    -   eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband    -   EMS Element Management System    -   eNB evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN Node B    -   EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity    -   EPC Evolved Packet Core    -   EPDCCH enhanced PDCCH, enhanced Physical Downlink Control        Channel    -   EPRE Energy per resource element    -   EPS Evolved Packet System    -   EREG enhanced REG, enhanced resource element groups    -   ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute    -   ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System    -   eUICC embedded UICC, embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card    -   E-UTRA Evolved UTRA    -   E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN    -   EV2X Enhanced V2X    -   F1AP F1 Application Protocol    -   F1-C F1 Control plane interface    -   F1-U F1 User plane interface    -   FACCH Fast Associated Control CHannel    -   FACCH/F Fast Associated Control Channel/Full rate    -   FACCH/H Fast Associated Control Channel/Half rate    -   FACH Forward Access Channel    -   FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signaling Channel    -   FB Functional Block    -   FBI Feedback Information    -   FCC Federal Communications Commission    -   FCCH Frequency Correction CHannel    -   FDD Frequency Division Duplex    -   FDM Frequency Division Multiplex    -   FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access    -   FE Front End    -   FEC Forward Error Correction    -   FFS For Further Study    -   FFT Fast Fourier Transformation    -   feLAA further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, further        enhanced LAA    -   FN Frame Number    -   FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array    -   FR Frequency Range    -   G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity    -   GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network    -   GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node    -   GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Engl.:        Global Navigation Satellite System)    -   gNB Next Generation NodeB    -   gNB-CU gNB-centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized        unit    -   gNB-DU gNB-distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed        unit    -   GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System    -   GPRS General Packet Radio Service    -   GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Special        Mobile    -   GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol    -   GTP-U GPRS Tunneling Protocol for User Plane    -   GTS Go To Sleep Signal (related to WUS)    -   GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier    -   GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity    -   HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request    -   HANDO, HO Handover    -   HFN HyperFrame Number    -   HHO Hard Handover    -   HLR Home Location Register    -   HN Home Network    -   HO Handover    -   HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network    -   HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access    -   HSN Hopping Sequence Number    -   HSPA High Speed Packet Access    -   HSS Home Subscriber Server    -   HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access    -   HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol    -   HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http/1.1        over SSL, i.e. port 443)    -   I-Block Information Block    -   ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identification    -   ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination    -   ID Identity, identifier    -   IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform    -   IE Information element    -   IBE In-Band Emission    -   IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers    -   IEI Information Element Identifier    -   IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length    -   IETF Internet Engineering Task Force    -   IF Infrastructure    -   IM Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia    -   IMC IMS Credentials    -   IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity    -   IMGI International mobile group identity    -   IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity    -   IMPU IP Multimedia PUblic identity    -   IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem    -   IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity    -   IoT Internet of Things    -   IP Internet Protocol    -   Ipsec IP Security, Internet Protocol Security    -   IP-CAN IP-Connectivity Access Network    -   IP-M IP Multicast    -   IPv4 Internet Protocol Version 4    -   IPv6 Internet Protocol Version 6    -   IR Infrared    -   IS In Sync    -   IRP Integration Reference Point    -   ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network    -   ISIM IM Services Identity Module    -   ISO International Organisation for Standardisation    -   ISP Internet Service Provider    -   IWF Interworking-Function    -   I-WLAN Interworking WLAN    -   K Constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM Individual        key    -   kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes)    -   kbps kilo-bits per second    -   Kc Ciphering key    -   Ki Individual subscriber authentication key    -   KPI Key Performance Indicator    -   KQI Key Quality Indicator    -   KSI Key Set Identifier    -   ksps kilo-symbols per second    -   KVM Kernel Virtual Machine    -   L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)    -   L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power    -   L2 Layer 2 (data link layer)    -   L3 Layer 3 (network layer)    -   LAA Licensed Assisted Access    -   LAN Local Area Network    -   LBT Listen Before Talk    -   LCM LifeCycle Management    -   LCR Low Chip Rate    -   LCS Location Services    -   LCID Logical Channel ID    -   LI Layer Indicator    -   LLC Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility    -   LPLMN Local PLMN    -   LPP LTE Positioning Protocol    -   LSB Least Significant Bit    -   LTE Long Term Evolution    -   LWA LTE-WLAN aggregation    -   LWIP LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel    -   LTE Long Term Evolution    -   M2M Machine-to-Machine    -   MAC Medium Access Control (protocol layering context)    -   MAC Message authentication code (security/encryption context)    -   MAC-A MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3        context)    -   MAC-I MAC used for data integrity of signaling messages (TSG T        WG3 context)    -   MANO Management and Orchestration    -   MBMS Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service    -   MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency        Network    -   MCC Mobile Country Code    -   MCG Master Cell Group    -   MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time    -   MCS Modulation and coding scheme    -   MDAF Management Data Analytics Function    -   MDAS Management Data Analytics Service    -   MDT Minimization of Drive Tests    -   ME Mobile Equipment    -   MeNB master eNB    -   MER Message Error Ratio    -   MGL Measurement Gap Length    -   MGRP Measurement Gap Repetition Period    -   MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base    -   MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output    -   MLC Mobile Location Centre    -   MM Mobility Management    -   MME Mobility Management Entity    -   MN Master Node    -   MO Measurement Object, Mobile Originated    -   MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast CHannel    -   MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel    -   MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared CHannel    -   MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access CHannel    -   MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel    -   MPLS MultiProtocol Label Switching    -   MS Mobile Station    -   MSB Most Significant Bit    -   MSC Mobile Switching Centre    -   MSI Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information    -   MSID Mobile Station Identifier    -   MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number    -   MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number    -   MT Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination    -   MTC Machine-Type Communications    -   mMTC massive MTC, massive Machine-Type Communications    -   MU-MIMO Multi User MIMO    -   MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS    -   NACK Negative Acknowledgement    -   NAI Network Access Identifier    -   NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum layer    -   NCT Network Connectivity Topology    -   NEC Network Capability Exposure    -   NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity    -   NEF Network Exposure Function    -   NF Network Function    -   NFP Network Forwarding Path    -   NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor    -   NFV Network Functions Virtualization    -   NFVI NFV Infrastructure    -   NFVO NFV Orchestrator    -   NG Next Generation, Next Gen    -   NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity    -   NM Network Manager    -   NMS Network Management System    -   N-PoP Network Point of Presence    -   NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB    -   NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel    -   NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control CHannel    -   NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel    -   NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel    -   NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel    -   NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal    -   NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal    -   NR New Radio, Neighbour Relation    -   NRF NF Repository Function    -   NRS Narrowband Reference Signal    -   NS Network Service    -   NSA Non-Standalone operation mode    -   NSD Network Service Descriptor    -   NSR Network Service Record    -   NSSAI Network Slice Selection Assistance Information    -   S-NNSAI Single-NSSAI    -   NSSF Network Slice Selection Function    -   NW Network    -   NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS    -   NZP Non-Zero Power    -   O&M Operation and Maintenance    -   ODU2 Optical channel Data Unit—type 2    -   OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing    -   OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access    -   OOB Out-of-band    -   OOS Out of Sync    -   OPEX OPerating EXpense    -   OSI Other System Information    -   OSS Operations Support System    -   OTA over-the-air    -   PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio    -   PAR Peak to Average Ratio    -   PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel    -   PC Power Control, Personal Computer    -   PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC    -   PCell Primary Cell    -   PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity    -   PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function    -   PCF Policy Control Function    -   PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function    -   PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence    -   Protocol layer    -   PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel    -   PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol    -   PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network    -   PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel    -   PDU Protocol Data Unit    -   PEI Permanent Equipment Identifiers    -   PFD Packet Flow Description    -   P-GW PDN Gateway    -   PHICH Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel    -   PHY Physical layer    -   PLMN Public Land Mobile Network    -   PIN Personal Identification Number    -   PM Performance Measurement    -   PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator    -   PNF Physical Network Function    -   PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor    -   PNFR Physical Network Function Record    -   POC PTT over Cellular    -   PP, PTP Point-to-Point    -   PPP Point-to-Point Protocol    -   PRACH Physical RACH    -   PRB Physical resource block    -   PRG Physical resource block group    -   ProSe Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Service    -   PRS Positioning Reference Signal    -   PRR Packet Reception Radio    -   PS Packet Services    -   PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel    -   PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel    -   PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel    -   PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel    -   PSCell Primary SCell    -   PSS Primary Synchronization Signal    -   PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network    -   PT-RS Phase-tracking reference signal    -   PTT Push-to-Talk    -   PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel    -   PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel    -   QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation    -   QCI QoS class of identifier    -   QCL Quasi co-location    -   QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier    -   QoS Quality of Service    -   QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying    -   QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System    -   RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI    -   RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst    -   RACH Random Access Channel    -   RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User Service    -   RAN Radio Access Network    -   RAND RANDom number (used for authentication)    -   RAR Random Access Response    -   RAT Radio Access Technology    -   RAU Routing Area Update    -   RB Resource block, Radio Bearer    -   RBG Resource block group    -   REG Resource Element Group    -   Rel Release    -   REQ REQuest    -   RF Radio Frequency    -   RI Rank Indicator    -   MV Resource indicator value    -   RL Radio Link    -   RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control layer    -   RLC AM RLC Acknowledged Mode    -   RLC UM RLC Unacknowledged Mode    -   RLF Radio Link Failure    -   RLM Radio Link Monitoring    -   RLM-RS Reference Signal for RLM    -   RM Registration Management    -   RMC Reference Measurement Channel    -   RMSI Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information    -   RN Relay Node    -   RNC Radio Network Controller    -   RNL Radio Network Layer    -   RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier    -   ROHC RObust Header Compression    -   RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control layer    -   RRM Radio Resource Management    -   RS Reference Signal    -   RSRP Reference Signal Received Power    -   RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality    -   RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator    -   RSU Road Side Unit    -   RSTD Reference Signal Time difference    -   RTP Real Time Protocol    -   RTS Ready-To-Send    -   RTT Round Trip Time    -   Rx Reception, Receiving, Receiver    -   S1AP S1 Application Protocol    -   S1-MME S1 for the control plane    -   S1-U S1 for the user plane    -   S-GW Serving Gateway    -   S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity    -   S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier    -   SA Standalone operation mode    -   SAE System Architecture Evolution    -   SAP Service Access Point    -   SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor    -   SAPI Service Access Point Identifier    -   SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC    -   SCell Secondary Cell    -   SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access    -   SCG Secondary Cell Group    -   SCM Security Context Management    -   SCS Subcarrier Spacing    -   SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol    -   SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation    -   Protocol layer    -   SDL Supplementary Downlink    -   SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function    -   SDP Session Description Protocol    -   SDSF Structured Data Storage Function    -   SDU Service Data Unit    -   SEAF Security Anchor Function    -   SeNB secondary eNB    -   SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy    -   SFI Slot format indication    -   SFTD Space-Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and frame timing        difference    -   SFN System Frame Number    -   SgNB Secondary gNB    -   SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node    -   S-GW Serving Gateway    -   SI System Information    -   SI-RNTI System Information RNTI    -   SIB System Information Block    -   SIM Subscriber Identity Module    -   SIP Session Initiated Protocol    -   SiP System in Package    -   SL Sidelink    -   SLA Service Level Agreement    -   SM Session Management    -   SMF Session Management Function    -   SMS Short Message Service    -   SMSF SMS Function    -   SMTC SSB-based Measurement Timing Configuration    -   SN Secondary Node, Sequence Number    -   SoC System on Chip    -   SON Self-Organizing Network    -   SpCell Special Cell    -   SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI    -   SPS Semi-Persistent Scheduling    -   SQN Sequence number    -   SR Scheduling Request    -   SRB Signaling Radio Bearer    -   SRS Sounding Reference Signal    -   SS Synchronization Signal    -   SSB Synchronization Signal Block, SS/PBCH Block    -   SSBRI SS/PBCH Block Resource Indicator, Synchronization Signal        Block Resource Indicator    -   SSC Session and Service Continuity    -   SS-RSRP Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received        Power    -   SS-RSRQ Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received        Quality    -   SS-SINR Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and        Interference Ratio    -   SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal    -   SSSG Search Space Set Group    -   SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator    -   SST Slice/Service Types    -   SU-MIMO Single User MIMO    -   SUL Supplementary Uplink    -   TA Timing Advance, Tracking Area    -   TAC Tracking Area Code    -   TAG Timing Advance Group    -   TAU Tracking Area Update    -   TB Transport Block    -   TBS Transport Block Size    -   TBD To Be Defined    -   TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator    -   TCP Transmission Communication Protocol    -   TDD Time Division Duplex    -   TDM Time Division Multiplexing    -   TDMA Time Division Multiple Access    -   TE Terminal Equipment    -   TEID Tunnel End Point Identifier    -   TFT Traffic Flow Template    -   TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity    -   TNL Transport Network Layer    -   TPC Transmit Power Control    -   TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator    -   TR Technical Report    -   TRP, TRxP Transmission Reception Point    -   TRS Tracking Reference Signal    -   TRx Transceiver    -   TS Technical Specifications, Technical Standard    -   TTI Transmission Time Interval    -   Tx Transmission, Transmitting, Transmitter    -   U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity    -   UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter    -   UCI Uplink Control Information    -   UE User Equipment    -   UDM Unified Data Management    -   UDP User Datagram Protocol    -   UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function    -   UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card    -   UL Uplink    -   UM Unacknowledged Mode    -   UML Unified Modelling Language    -   UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System    -   UP User Plane    -   UPF User Plane Function    -   URI Uniform Resource Identifier    -   URL Uniform Resource Locator    -   URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency    -   USB Universal Serial Bus    -   USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module    -   USS UE-specific search space    -   UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access    -   UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network    -   UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot    -   V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastruction    -   V2P Vehicle-to-Pedestrian    -   V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle    -   V2X Vehicle-to-everything    -   VIM Virtualized Infrastructure Manager    -   VL Virtual Link,    -   VLAN Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network    -   VM Virtual Machine    -   VNF Virtualized Network Function    -   VNFFG VNF Forwarding Graph    -   VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor    -   VNFM VNF Manager    -   VoIP Voice-over-IP, Voice-over-Internet Protocol    -   VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network    -   VPN Virtual Private Network    -   VRB Virtual Resource Block    -   WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access    -   WLAN Wireless Local Area Network    -   WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network    -   WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network    -   X2-C X2-Control plane    -   X2-U X2-User plane    -   XML eXtensible Markup Language    -   XRES EXpected user RESponse    -   XOR eXclusive OR    -   ZC Zadoff-Chu    -   ZP Zero Power

Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms anddefinitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussedherein, but is not meant to be limiting.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includeshardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, aprocessor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared,dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC),a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array(FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), ahigh-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC),digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to providethe described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry mayexecute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at leastsome of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also referto a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination ofcircuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the programcode used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In theseembodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code maybe referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carryingout a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording,storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term “processorcircuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or morebaseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), asingle-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, aquad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing orotherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as programcode, software modules, and/or functional processes. The terms“application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be consideredsynonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between twoor more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may referto one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces,peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or thelike.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device withradio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user ofnetwork resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment”or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as,client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobileunit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station,access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurableradio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, theterm “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wireddevice or any computing device including a wireless communicationsinterface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical orvirtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired orwireless communication network services. The term “network element” maybe considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer,networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch,hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway,server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any typeinterconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or componentsthereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” mayrefer to various components of a computer that are communicativelycoupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or“system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiplecomputing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another andconfigured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used hereinrefers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g.,software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide aspecific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machineimage to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizesor emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide aspecific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtualdevice, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment,and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, suchas computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPUtime, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardwaretime or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports ornetwork sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage,storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or thelike. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/ornetwork resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A“virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or networkresources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application,device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communicationresource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computerdevices/systems via a communications network. The term “systemresources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services,and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources maybe considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects orservices, accessible through a server where such system resources resideon a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium,either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or adata stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalentto “communications channel,” “data communications channel,”“transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,”“data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequencycarrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or mediumthrough which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” asused herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT forthe purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used hereinrefers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivativesthereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another,may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other butstill cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one ormore other elements are coupled or connected between the elements thatare said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” maymean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another.The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elementsmay be in contact with one another by a means of communication includingthrough a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wirelesscommunication channel or ink, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containingone or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of aninformation element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configurationconfigured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.

The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on theprimary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initialconnection establishment procedure or initiates the connectionre-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UEperforms random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Syncprocedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radioresources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cellscomprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UEconfigured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cellcomprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cellscomprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell ofthe SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers tothe Pcell.

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE) in a wireless networkcomprising: generating, by the UE, a MsgA of a random access channel(RACH) procedure associated with the wireless network, the MsgA having aphysical random access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associatedphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission duringthe RACH procedure; and transmitting, by the UE, the MsgA to a basestation (BS) over unlicensed spectrum of the wireless network during theRACH procedure.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the PRACH occasion andthe associated PUSCH occasion are configured to cause the MsgA tosatisfy an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of theunlicensed spectrum during the RACH procedure.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the generating further comprises: configuring, by the UE, thePRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion separately; andallocating, by the UE, a reserved state in a time domain resourceallocation to indicate that the associated PUSCH occasion follows rightafter a preamble of the PRACH occasion.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the generating further comprises inserting, by the UE, anextension of a cyclic prefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gapbetween the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising inserting, by the UE, a copy of apreamble of the MsgA PRACH to fill a gap between the PRACH occasion andthe associated PUSCH occasion.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising defining, by the UE, a bitmap, wherein each bit in the bitmapis used to indicate whether a corresponding PRACH occasion is enabled ordisabled during the RACH procedure.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising configuring, by the UE, the PUSCH occasion based on afrequency offset, wherein the frequency offset is based on an interlaceindex or a physical resource block (PRB) index.
 8. A non-transitorycomputer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform operationscomprising: generating a MsgA of a random access channel (RACH)procedure associated with a wireless network, the MsgA having a physicalrandom access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission during the RACHprocedure; and transmitting the MsgA to a base station (BS) overunlicensed spectrum of a wireless network during the RACH procedure. 9.The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein thePRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion are configured to causethe MsgA to satisfy an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement ofthe unlicensed spectrum during the RACH procedure.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein theoperations further comprise: configuring the PRACH occasion and theassociated PUSCH occasion separately; and allocating a reserved state ina time domain resource allocation to indicate that the associated PUSCHoccasion follows right after a preamble of the PRACH occasion.
 11. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein theoperations further comprise inserting an extension of a cyclic prefix(CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gap between the PRACH occasionand the associated PUSCH occasion.
 12. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further compriseinserting a copy of a preamble of the PRACH occasion to fill a gapbetween the PRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein theoperations further comprise defining a bitmap, wherein each bit in thebitmap is used to indicate whether a corresponding PRACH occasion isenabled or disabled during the RACH procedure.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations furthercomprise configuring the PUSCH occasion based on a frequency offset,wherein the frequency offset is based on an interlace index or aphysical resource block (PRB) index.
 15. A user equipment (UE)comprising: processor circuitry configured to generate a MsgA for arandom access channel (RACH) procedure, the MsgA having a physicalrandom access channel (PRACH) occasion and an associated physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) occasion for transmission during the RACHprocedure; and radio front end circuitry, coupled to the processorcircuitry, configured to transmit the MsgA over unlicensed spectrum of awireless network during the RACH procedure, wherein the PRACH occasionand the associated PUSCH occasion are configured to cause the MsgA tosatisfy an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of theunlicensed spectrum during the RACH procedure.
 16. The UE of claim 15,wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to: configure thePRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion separately; andallocate a reserved state in a time domain resource allocation toindicate that the associated PUSCH occasion follows right after apreamble of the PRACH occasion.
 17. The UE of claim 15, wherein theprocessor circuitry is further configured to insert an extension of acyclic prefix (CP) of the associated PUSCH to fill a gap between thePRACH occasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.
 18. The UE of claim15, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to insert acopy of a preamble of the PRACH occasion to fill a gap between the PRACHoccasion and the associated PUSCH occasion.
 19. The UE of claim 15,wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to define abitmap, wherein each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether acorresponding PRACH occasion is enabled or disabled during the RACHprocedure.
 20. The UE of claim 15, wherein the processor circuitry isfurther configured to configure the PUSCH occasion based on a frequencyoffset, wherein the frequency offset is based on an interlace index or aphysical resource block (PRB) index.